AI dubbing in films leaves Tolly divided

Kolkata: First, it was A R Rahman who sought permission from families of late singers Bamba Bakya and Shahul Hameed for using artificial intelligence (AI) to record the song, ‘Thimiri Yezhuda’, in Rajinikanth’s film ‘Lal Salaam’. Next, Srijit Mukherji sought permission from the Ray family to use AI to dub Satyajit Ray’s voice for his forthcoming film ‘Padatik’.Both these incidents of AI assistance have left the film and music industry divided.
Many are now wondering if Tollywood will soon see films with AI created voices of Hiralal Sen, Ritwik Ghatak, Ajoy Kar, Uttam Kumar and Suchitra Sen and even playback by Hemanta Kumar, Sandhya Mukherjee and Ustad Rashid Khan. Mukherji said no company that provides this kind of a service is willing to even entertain a proposal unless there is an NOC from the next of kin or family member. “Their laws are strongly in place. The moment you are doing something that has a commercial angle to it, you will have to take NOC from the family,” Mukherji said.
What if the family members are unavailable? “The laws are similar to the ones for a biopic where the family is not there. Instead of life rights, one has to take voice rights,” he added.
Ustad Rashid Khan’s son, Armaan, who lost his father last month, has welcomed the idea. “If someone comes up with such a proposal, it will mean preserving my father’s voice for eternity. People have heard all his songs a number of times. AI can actually offer a new song in his voice that people will otherwise never get to hear,” Khan said.
But theatre personality Poulomi Bose is aware of how AI has been used to morph photos of her father, Soumitra Chatterjee, and make memes about how the legend would have looked had he played physicist J Robert Oppenheimer. “That was fun. But to use a voice is a different thing altogether. As his daughter, I have the right to give permission. But the consent is still not from him,” she said. The most important concern she raised is the future of young talents. “We need to give space to youngsters to grow,” Bose added.
The concern was echoed by singer Ujjaini Mukherjee. “One can’t really stop family members if they give such rights. Royalty will be paid, I’m sure. I feel threatened for the first time in my life. This is a serious issue. AI can perhaps clone the voice. But can it get the emotion right? For some time, we have had technology that assisted most singers to record songs that are flawless to the listeners’ ears. But there is still a human voice recording everything and then being assisted by technology. But this is a big change. If this really becomes a norm, we singers will only have to rely on live shows till the time something happens and technology replaces us there too,” Mukherjee said.
Armaan, however, said that it is important for young artists to hone their own skills and create a niche without trying to be a clone of anyone. “We can survive if we have an edge. Once that is there, nothing can be a threat for us even if AI generates new songs with the legends’ voices,” Khan said..