Shakun Batra and ad director Kobayashi on AI in films, the importance of craft

First came hesitation. Naturally, given both guests are filmmakers.But once the threshold was crossed, there was no looking back. For Shakun Batra — director of Kapoor & Sons, Gehraiyaan, and Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu — the tipping point was a traffic jam shot that cost one-tenth of what they'd built on set. For Kobayashi, it was a car commercial that he hadn’t attempted before.Shakun went on to build an AI division at his production house Jouska Films and collaborate with Google to make a small film using Veo 3. Kobayashi built Bait Society, an AI-native production company, from scratch.One augmented an existing practice. One rebuilt entirely. We assumed these were diverging paths. But at the core, both are simply people who love using technology to make things they'd love to see.In this episode of Zero Shot, we get into who gets credit when AI is in the pipeline, what happens to the crews and guilds being left behind, and why craft and voice still matter. We also go into the writing process in the AI age, the limits of the tools, and what it actually takes to make a feature film with AI today.Both agree on one thing: production is getting easier. The bar for storytelling is going higher.Tune in!____This episode was produced by Vidhatri Rao and edited by Rajiv CN.____Zeus, the mascot of Zero Shot, was generated using AI. Everything else is made by humans, just like all articles, columns, newsletters, and other podcasts created by The Ken.Write to us at [email protected]. We are all ears!____Additional material: https://www.imdb.com/name/nm2439708/https://www.baitsociety.ai/kobayashi-reel