When Rajesh Bhatia and I announced the FTII AI Cinema Masterclass in June, the intention was clear — this would not be a tool demonstration. It would be a filmmaking programme. Cinema first, AI second. Ten days. Twenty participants. One finished film each.
Six days of online sessions between 13 and 18 July laid the full theoretical and pre-production foundation. Four intensive days of offline production at Hall No. 40, Link Plaza, Oshiwara West, Mumbai between 21 and 24 July brought everything to life on screen.
On the final day, twenty filmmakers stood up, screened their work, and received their certificates — in the presence of two extraordinary guests of honour. Here is what happened across those ten days.
Offline phase · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · July 21–24, 2026
Twenty People. Twenty Worlds.
What makes a masterclass is not the curriculum — it is the room. And this room was unlike anything we had built before.
Twenty participants arrived from across India with backgrounds as different as their films.
Writers, producers, educators, and working professionals from fields far outside cinema — all drawn by the same question: what happens when AI enters the filmmaking process? The answer, as the ten days proved, is something none of us could have scripted.
Participants · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · Mumbai · July 2026
Production days · Hall No. 40, Link Plaza, Oshiwara West · Mumbai
Every Participant Left With a Finished Film.
The mandate from Day 1 was clear — every participant would conceive, direct, and deliver their own AI short film by the end of Day 10. Not a group project. Not a demo. A complete, individually made film.
“The participants who produced the strongest work were not the most technically fluent. They were the ones with the clearest visual intention before they touched a single tool.”
Several films stood out. The orthopaedic surgeon from Bhubaneswar — who had never directed before — delivered a film of quiet emotional precision that surprised everyone in the room, including himself. Rishika’s film drew immediate attention during the showcase — a strong visual sensibility and a clear directorial voice evident in every frame.
Twenty people. Twenty ways of seeing the world. Twenty films that could only have been made by those particular human beings at that particular moment in time.
Final showcase · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · 24 July 2026
The Certificate Ceremony — A Moment.
The certificate ceremony on the final day was more than a formality. It was a moment of recognition — for twenty people who had spent ten days pushing the boundaries of what they thought they could do as filmmakers. We were honoured to have two extraordinary guests grace the occasion.
“Technology in cinema has always been a tool in service of the story. Green screen, digital, AI — each generation of filmmakers finds its own language. What matters is that you have something to say.”
Pankaj Parashar · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · Mumbai · July 2026
Siraj Syed · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · Mumbai · July 2026
Certificate presentation · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · Mumbai · July 2026
Pankaj Parashar · FTII AI Cinema Masterclass · Mumbai · July 2026
What We Learned.
Every masterclass teaches the instructors as much as it teaches the participants. This one was no different.
We came in with a curriculum built on our combined experience — 60+ years of filmmaking between Rajesh and me. But what the twenty participants brought to the room could not have been anticipated. A surgeon’s precision applied to visual storytelling. A cinematographer’s instinct meeting AI’s generative possibilities. An assistant director understanding, perhaps for the first time, what it means to direct.
If the May Mumbai workshop showed us that AI filmmaking is possible, the FTII Masterclass showed us that it is teachable. That the cinematic instinct is not the domain of a privileged few — it lives in surgeons, in writers, in people who have spent their lives watching stories but never had the tools to tell their own.
We are proud of every film that was made. We are proud of every person who showed up for ten days and left with something they made themselves. The next masterclass is being planned. Watch this space.
© 2026 Bharat Arora · AI Cinema Masterclass · FTII School of Open Learning · Mumbai