From Mahabharat to Hanuman: Collective Artists Network's Vijay Subramaniam on how AI is shaping India's entertainment future

Vijay Subramaniam-led Collective Artists Network is betting big on technology to rewrite India's creative future. As the Founder and Group CEO of India’s leading integrated creative marketplace, which connects top talent across film, music, sports, and digital media, Subramaniam is building what he calls "India's first new-age technology media company," one that, if done right, could someday become the "Reliance of the creator economy".

With his latest micro-drama ventures, AI Mahabharat: Ek Dharmayudh and Chiranjeevi Hanuman – The Eternal, Subramaniam is attempting something bold. These are not just ambitious storytelling projects, but among India’s first fully AI-engineered cinematic projects. Through this new innovative approach, Subramaniam's Historyverse aims to reimagine epics for a generation that's raised on algorithms and streaming.

However, the approach has divided the content industry, with some calling it "revolutionary", while others caution that it could threaten the soul of creative labour. But Subramaniam believes AI's impact on content and creativity, like any other field, is inevitable. He doesn't see it as a disruptor, but as an enabler. "We're not prompting, we're engineering," he says, arguing that technology will make storytelling faster, more affordable, and more inclusive. This, he says, will open new doors for first-time directors, designers, and musicians.

In an interview with Fortune India's Manoj Sharma, Subramaniam talks about everything from his latest AI-based projects to managing over two million creators and launching a consumer fund with Zerodha Co-founder Nikhil Kamath. Edited excerpts:

Before delving into all the projects and other things, let's talk about Collective Artist Network first?

That’s a big question. Let me explain with an analogy. If Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak built Apple to take down IBM in personal computing, I want to take down the largest media buying network, the largest creator network, and the largest proprietary distribution network. My goal is to build India’s first new-age technology media company. I own the largest creator network in the country: celebrities, creators, and students enabled by technology. We also run the largest advertising business in the creator and content economy, and now own distribution assets like Under25, TTT, Collective Media Network, and our AI-led projects.

How big is the opportunity for your company in India’s thriving content market, which is emerging as a global hub for content and data?

We manage about 400 celebrities, 2 million creators, and 3 million student content creators. Today, distribution and media are highly fragmented. To succeed, you need scale. In an attention-deficit economy, every platform: OTT, mobile, theatre, or social, competes for limited time. If you want someone to buy a movie ticket, you need to hold their attention for hours; if you want them to finish a one-minute reel, it has to be instantly engaging. The real competition is for mental real estate: how much of the audience’s mindshare you occupy. It’s no longer about traditional formats like films or TV shows; it’s about 'T20 content' and 'micro-dramas' that match shrinking attention spans. Some audiences commit to long formats like concerts or shows, others to quick dopamine hits that last seconds. The opportunity lies at the intersection of content and creation: those who can consistently capture attention across formats will win.

You’ve often said you want Collective Artists Network to become the "Reliance of the creator ecosystem". That's a huge ambition. What will it take to achieve that kind of scale and success?

I've always admired Mukeshbhai's vision: the idea of being insatiable about creating societal growth, yet doing it with a capitalistic mindset. That balance really inspires me. Most people in our space stop at talent management. But I've always asked myself: what happens when talent retires? How do you secure their future? That's why we started building investment and enterprise opportunities for creators: helping them think beyond their active careers.

From there, it was natural to move into content production. But even that model isn’t infinitely scalable. What is scalable is reducing production costs, increasing output, and finding new, tech-driven distribution models. That's where our AI projects like Mahabharat and Hanuman come in. Reliance is my North Star because it never stopped at one business: starting from petrochemicals, then expanding into telecom, retail, and media. Today, everything around us, except the air we breathe, is touched by Reliance. I see immense value in building a similar ecosystem in the creative economy.

Let’s talk about the AI-led projects your company has been working on. How do you see their financial and commercial viability? Is India ready to create globally competitive AI-driven content?

From what I’ve seen, India is absolutely ready. In fact, several leading global media and technology companies, some among the big four, have seen our pilots for Mahabharat and Hanuman and told us we're ahead of what's happening even in Los Angeles. I don’t see AI as just another technology; AI is the new internet. What we're building is not prompting: it’s engineering. On the tech side, our focus is on efficiency and speed, which makes projects commercially viable. You no longer need to break the bank to tell a large-scale story.

For instance, building Hastinapur or grand palaces in the Mahabharat would normally cost hundreds of crores. With AI, we can achieve the same visual impact at a fraction of that cost. That’s how technology becomes a creative enabler. I've often asked, "Why haven't we made our own Game of Thrones or Lord of the Rings?" Now, with AI, I believe India finally can, and much faster than people expect.

You've launched Historyverse, a major tech-enabled storytelling studio. Tell us more about it.

Historyverse is dedicated to capturing India's history through technology. Hanuman and Mahabharat are just the first two projects: we plan to tell many more stories from our heritage. Traditionally, creating such epics in live action would cost hundreds of crores and take years. Technology changes that. It allows us to tell these stories faster, more efficiently, and with greater creative depth. We can now focus our time and budgets on writers, directors, and researchers instead of being constrained by production costs.

For example, if I want a marble pillar to look a certain way, technology lets me achieve that instantly and precisely. But beyond efficiency, what excites me most is access: it enables new voices. The director of Mahabharat is a first-time filmmaker from Whistling Woods, and the composers of Tilok, our AI-powered band, are two young musicians who are now scoring Mahabharat and Hanuman. That's why I always say: our projects are enabled by technology, but created by humans. There is engineering and creativity behind every frame: it's not just typing prompts and watching magic happen.

The projects have received some criticism from key people in the industry. How do you answer creators who say their livelihood could be threatened by AI? Content is such a space where humans are deeply attached.

That’s a fundamental debate. Any technological innovation disrupts existing systems. If you earned your daily wage in the 1800s, the arrival of automobiles and other technology changed everything. Typewriters lost jobs when personal computing came in. Canon and Kodak were disrupted by the iPhone. The OTT revolution created opportunities for many new actors and talent that didn’t exist before.

People are overreacting to AI in content. Animation took away certain jobs, yet writers, researchers, and directors remained. Similarly, AI-generated films still have directors, writers, producers, and designers involved. The designer may not be a set designer, but someone from NID, for example. You can't stop technology and evolution. Henry Ford’s assembly line changed jobs forever. I can’t spend ₹300 crore on Mahabharata without using technology to scale production. My scripts are written by humans, not AI prompts. AI assists in production: it doesn't replace creativity.

AI is replacing jobs in other fields too, coding, healthcare, music, but nobody frames it as a threat only in content. When I formed my AI band, composers programmed it: it didn’t replace musicians. Audio software transformed orchestras decades ago; orchestras became smaller, more efficient, but the music continued. People criticising my work often don't understand this. They have previously benefited from technology themselves. Innovation cannot be stopped, and AI is simply the next step.

My next question is about the ethical side. How can companies ensure that proper guardrails are in place when such projects are carried out?

The key is ensuring that the training data does not infringe on anyone's copyright. Take love stories, for example: musicians write heartbreak songs, and writers create similar plots. That's inspiration, not copying. What's important is not using someone's exact work or face. References are fine: you may want someone to sing like Kabira or a dish to taste like Bukhara, but you cannot replicate someone else's work and claim it as your own. That's unethical.

When I reinterpret the works of Valmiki or Ved Vyas, I'm using public domain material. The Mahabharata is public; anyone can publish it. Training an AI on someone else's film script and only changing a few scenes would be unethical, but that has been happening in content for decades. I focus solely on public works. If my AI band sings spiritual songs like "Achyutam Keshavam", these have been in the public domain for centuries. Multiple interpretations exist, and I am not stealing anyone's work. Projects like Hanuman and Mahabharata fall entirely within this framework. 

Does this also link to commercial viability? How do you ensure the storytelling feels fresh, given these stories have been interpreted thousands of times?

It's about the world you create and the treatment of the story. Christopher Nolan adapted Batman differently, but the core story, Bruce Wayne losing his parents, remains the same. Similarly, in age-old tales like Jodha Akbar, Ramayan, or Mahabharata, the essential plot points remain: Draupadi’s Vastraharan, Pandavas versus Kauravas. What matters is interpretation. For us, India’s Historyverse must be visually at par with, if not better than, Marvel films. It should evoke the richness of our history and culture in a sensory, immersive way. Success isn’t about religion or God: it’s about creating content so compelling that a child would choose Hanuman as a screensaver over Superman.

Can you tell us about the fund you launched with Nitin Kamath and what it aims to achieve?

It's a consumer fund backing early-stage consumer products companies, investing up to a million dollars in each. The goal is to support entrepreneurs who can advance consumerism in India, combining our expertise in branding, consumer marketing, and storytelling from an Indian perspective. Fundamentally, it’s a straight-up consumer fund focused on both content and consumers, which are core to the cultural pillars of the nation. It's a small fund. It's a Rs 100 crore fund with a Rs 50 crore green shoe.