Abundantia Entertainment, Invideo make $11m investment in AI-driven filmmaking
Abundantia Entertainment’s Vikram Malhotra, left, and Invideo’s Sanket Shah
Indian entertainment companies continue to make no secret of their willingness to use AI to create content, with Abundantia Entertainment investing heavily in the controversial tech.
Mumbai-based producer Abundantia Entertainment has struck a strategic partnership with AI video technology company Invideo to launch an AI-driven film production studio, backed by a ₹1bn (US$11m) investment.
The company claimed this made it the “largest structured commitment” to AI-driven filmmaking in India to date.
Announced this week to coincide with the landmark India AI Impact Summit 2026 in New Delhi, it comes after Vikram Malhotra’s Abundantia Entertainment last year launched Abundantia aiON, a division dedicated to creating, developing and producing stories powered by AI.
The partnership between Abundantia and invideo is seeking to “reimagine how films are conceptualised, developed and produced” and is targeting a slate of five “AI-driven” films over the next three years alongside filmmakers, writers and VFX artists.
Abundantia aiON is currently developing what it claims will be India’s first AI generated Hindi feature film, Chiranjeevi Hanuman: The Eternal, and has announced its next AI-powered feature film will be Jai Santoshi Mata: Sukh Sampatti Daata.
Former Viacom18 Motion Pictures chief operating officer Malhotra, founder and CEO of Abundantia Entertainment, said: “AI in filmmaking is now real. Every major leap in cinema – from sound to colour to digital – has expanded storytelling possibility. AI represents the next inflection point.
“With Abundantia aiON, we are building a future where AI strengthens and amplifies the filmmaker’s voice, not substitutes it. Our partnership with invideo allows us to design a future-facing creative studio that blends human imagination, authorship and intelligence to create stories that are both emotionally resonant and technologically path-breaking.”
Sanket Shah, founder and CEO of Invideo, added: “Our mission has always been to democratise high-quality video creation through AI. Partnering with a top-notch studio like Abundantia Entertainment enables us to extend this capability into the world of high-quality filmmaking by building tools and workflows that allow creators to move from idea to cinematic expression faster and more freely than ever before. This is about accelerating and enhancing creativity, not just automating it.”
Backed by global investors Tiger Global and Peak XV (formerly Sequoia Capital India), invideo recently announced a strategic collaboration with Google Cloud to build AI-powered filmmaking tools.
Separately, Indian streaming giant JioHotstar is adding a ChatGPT-powered voice discovery option to allow users to find content more easily across multiple Indian languages by having a “conversation” with the tech.
Instead of navigating menus or typing keywords, viewers can simply speak their intent, mood or context and will “receive intelligent, context-aware recommendations instantly,” the company said.
Uday Shankar, vice chair of parent company JioStar, said: “AI marks a transformative shift for the media and entertainment industry. It fundamentally disrupts every aspect of the value chain, from conceptualisation and production to discovery and monetisation.”
“As a tech-native, user-first platform, JioStar is embedding AI at the very core of the user experience. Our partnership with OpenAI will allow viewers to discover, engage with and even curate content simply using their voice. This is a fundamental reimagining of the entertainment experience; one that anticipates culture and feels deeply personal to every viewer.”
“Traditionally, entertainment is a one-way experience where you passively consume content – AI completely changes that dynamic,” said Fidji Simo, CEO of applications at OpenAI.
“Through our partnership with JioHotstar, we’re bringing personalised AI directly into entertainment and live sports, turning every moment into an opportunity for deeper engagement. Viewers can move seamlessly from watching to asking, from curiosity to context, and from exploration to recommendation in ways that feel natural, personal and immediately useful.”
JioHotstar is second only to Netflix in terms of global subscriber base, despite only being available in India, where it touts 300 million paying users.
JioStar recently appointed Stephan Bugaj as its first senior VP of generative AI content and technology as it looks to use the controversial tech in areas including storytelling.
AI is set to be a major talking point at next month’s Content India, which will take place in Mumbai from March 16-18 and feature speakers including Kevin Vaz, CEO of entertainment at JioStar.
