EXCLUSIVE: In a major test of the industry’s new technological frontier, actors Mayur More and Ashlesha Thakur have signed on to star in 'Beta Builder', where they will be tasked with physically performing whatever nonsensical actions the production's generative algorithm spits out on any given day.
The pact between India’s Abundantia AiOn and video tech firm InVideo marks the industry's first "hybrid AI" feature. Sources close to the production confirm the actors will report to the Mumbai set each morning to receive their blocking from a large language model, which currently requires them to walk backward through doors and occasionally attempt to melt seamlessly into the furniture.
InVideo’s Global Creative Lead, Hridaye A. Nagpal, is attached to direct—a traditional industry term the studio is using to describe the executive who types "make it more cinematic" into the prompt bar while the human cast tries to figure out how to hold a coffee cup with seven fingers.
Mayur and Ashlesha are thrilled to be on the ground floor of a project where their primary job is to provide the algorithm with enough physical reference data so it can eventually replace them entirely.
The rollout for 'Beta Builder' is already generating buzz among tech-forward studio executives, who are closely tracking the film's budget. By utilizing a hybrid AI model, Abundantia has successfully reduced its writing staff to zero, though insiders note the savings have been entirely offset by the cost of hiring a massive VFX team to digitally remove the extra limbs the algorithm keeps generating onto Thakur’s torso in post-production.
Principal photography begins today in Mumbai, with the first scene on the call sheet reportedly featuring More delivering a deeply emotional monologue to a floating, low-resolution watermark.