Shekhar Kapur plans to launch AI-focused film school in Mumbai's Dharavi slum

Veteran filmmaker Shekhar Kapur is planning to come up with an AI-focused film school in Mumbai's Dharavi slum district.

As per Variety, the initiative builds on Kapur's decade-long experience running The Dharavi Project alongside Oscar-winning composer A.R. Rahman, a hip-hop and rap initiative in Dharavi in partnership with Universal Music that has successfully launched several students to national stardom.

Speaking about his plans in detail, Shekhar Kapur told the portal, "Those kids have become national stars. For years, people have told me, 'Please start a film school.' I'm going to start a film school in Dharavi, and the reason is because I think that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a new push in cinema."

Kapur described AI as the most "democratic technology."

"AI is the most democratic technology [that] has come in, despite what everybody says. Because I know that my future competition is not with the biggest directors in the world, it is with this 15-year-old girl who lives in a slum in Mumbai who understands prompting and will be able to create one-minute, two-minute, 10-minute films just by sitting at the computer ... and will be better than me," he mentioned.

He added that with access to and an understanding of that technology, someone could become "the greatest filmmaker in the world."

The exact timeline for the school's launch remains unconfirmed.

Meanwhile, Shekhar Kapur is busy working on the sequel to his hit film 'Masoom' (1983).

"The script is ready, and I will start shooting in February or March. I was travelling from Dubai to Delhi, and I realized I had left the 'Masoom 2' script on the plane seat," Kapur recalled during a conversation with ANI. "But I got it back, and a flight attendant wrote me a note saying that Masoom was a very good film, and this one will be just as good. So, see, it came back even after being left behind--there must be something to it. It's destiny," the filmmaker said.

The sequel promises a fresh storyline while retaining the core values that made the original 'Masoom' so beloved.

Kapur confirmed that the star-studded cast will include Shabana Azmi, Naseeruddin Shah, Manoj Bajpayee, and his daughter Kaveri, among others.