Tamasha Studios’ Abhik Banerjee Wins International Recognition at Astana AI Film Festival

Mumbai, 8th October 2026: Tamasha Studios is celebrating an international milestone after filmmaker and creative collaborator Abhik Banerjee received the Outstanding Artistic Achievement recognition at the Astana AI Film Festival in Astana, Kazakhstan, for Sitara.

Created by Banerjee and the creative team in association with Rollsound Studios, Sitara was recognised at the international festival, which explores the possibilities of artificial intelligence in filmmaking. The recognition carries a prize valued at USD 250,000.

For Tamasha Studios, the recognition also marks a milestone in its broader AI initiative. The studio has been encouraging its creative teams to experiment with AI across formats and develop work aimed at meeting increasingly ambitious international benchmarks.

‘We are not looking at AI as a gimmick’
Mithilesh Bhagat, Founder of Tamasha Studios, has been working with creative teams and leading platforms on AI-driven micro-dramas, web series, films, television serials, animation and hybrid productions combining AI with live-action shoots.

Bhagat said the industry is still beginning to understand the quality and scale that can be achieved with the technology.

“There is still a lot of hesitation around AI in India. I think part of the reason is that people have not seen enough polished, production-quality work. When you see basic AI-generated content, your perception of the technology is naturally limited. But when you see what a strong filmmaker and creative team can actually achieve with it, the perspective changes completely.”

He added:
“At Tamasha, we are not looking at AI as a gimmick or simply a faster production tool. We are actively exploring what it can do across micro-dramas, series, films, serials, animation and hybrid shoots. Every format gives us a different understanding of the technology and its creative potential.”

Setting bigger creative targets
Tamasha’s approach has been to push its teams beyond experimentation and towards work that can compete on international platforms.
“We keep setting the bar higher for our teams. We ask them to think beyond what is easy today—make it more cinematic, make the storytelling stronger, improve the visual language and ask whether the work can compete globally. That constant push is an integral part of our AI journey,” Bhagat said.

He described the recognition for Sitara as a reflection of that broader creative effort.

“Abhik and the entire team deserve the credit for bringing Sitara to life. At the same time, we are proud that Tamasha has been an integral part of the journey—helping shape the ambition, pushing the creative process and creating the environment in which the team could keep experimenting and raising the benchmark.”

‘AI can change the scale of what Indian filmmakers attempt’
For Bhagat, one of the biggest opportunities presented by AI is the ability to make previously expensive visual ideas more accessible.

“As Indian filmmakers, we have always had ideas for dinosaur films, giant shark movies or projects on the scale of Avatar. The imagination was never the limitation. The VFX and production budgets were.”

He said AI could help change that equation.

“AI is becoming a powerful tool that can change that equation. It gives filmmakers another way to approach scale, worlds, creatures and environments that were previously extremely difficult or expensive to realise.”

However, the democratisation of the technology also means Indian creators are entering a more competitive global landscape.

“The competition is no longer only within India. The moment the tools become global, the creative benchmark becomes global as well. So accessibility is only one part of the opportunity. The real challenge is to create work that is distinctive, emotionally strong and good enough to travel.”

Thinking ‘Glocal’
That approach is shaping Tamasha’s strategy around what Bhagat describes as ‘Glocal’ — Global + Local.

“We want to take Indian stories, Indian emotions and our cultural imagination and give them a global cinematic treatment. We don’t want to imitate international cinema. We want to build something that feels Indian but can connect with audiences anywhere in the world.”

Bhagat believes India’s storytelling heritage provides a strong foundation for this approach.

“We have an incredible depth of mythology, folklore, characters and stories. Combining that with AI, VFX, animation, live action and our creative talent gives us an enormous opportunity to build original worlds from India.”

Abhik Banerjee: ‘The opportunity is a new cinematic language’

For Banerjee, the recognition for Sitara represents an important step in exploring what AI could mean for filmmaking.

“AI is still a very young medium, and we are only beginning to understand its creative potential. The exciting question for me isn’t simply what AI can generate, but what kind of cinema becomes possible because these tools exist.”

He said the technology must ultimately serve the story.
“Spectacle is relatively easy to chase. The real challenge is creating emotion, characters and storytelling that stay with the audience. Technology has to serve the story. That is where I think the most interesting work will come from.”

Banerjee believes the medium will continue to evolve through experimentation.

“We can now explore visual worlds and ideas that would have been extremely difficult to produce through traditional pipelines. But the technology itself is not the achievement. The achievement is discovering how to use it creatively and develop a language that feels genuinely cinematic.”

A new path for cinema
For Tamasha Studios, the Astana recognition comes as the company continues to develop projects across AI-driven films, series, animation, micro-dramas and hybrid production.

Bhagat sees AI as creating a parallel creative pathway rather than replacing traditional filmmaking.

“I don’t see AI replacing cinema. I see it creating another path within cinema. Live action will continue, traditional VFX will continue, animation will continue—and AI can increasingly work alongside all of them. The most interesting future will probably be where these disciplines come together.”

He added:
“This is why Sitara is meaningful for us. It is not just an award. It is a signal that the work coming out of this space can be taken seriously on a global stage. For Tamasha, the next step is to take that benchmark even higher.”

As the global AI filmmaking ecosystem evolves, Tamasha Studios plans to continue developing collaborations and content across formats, with a focus on combining Indian storytelling, emerging technology and global creative ambition.

Tamasha Studios congratulated Abhik Banerjee, Rollsound Studios and the entire Sitara team on the international recognition.