Pune’s Prafulla Dhariwal Leads OpenAI’s Ghibli Studio Revolution, Creating Billions of Animated Images
Pune, 26th April 2025: OpenAI, the global tech giant, recently launched “Ghibli Studio,” a groundbreaking image generation tool that has created billions of animated images within days. Behind this phenomenal success is Prafulla Dhariwal, a brilliant research scientist from Pune, who led the development of the project at OpenAI.
Dhariwal was the driving force who transformed Ghibli Studio from a simple idea into a fully developed, widely beloved feature. His small but dedicated team spent nearly a year perfecting the tool. The overwhelming global response, with over 1.3 billion users generating more than 70 billion animated images in just two weeks, has taken even OpenAI by surprise.
Today, Prafulla Dhariwal stands as a symbol of innovation and pride not just for Pune, but for all of India — a young trailblazer who brought a magical Ghibli-style world to life, while staying deeply connected to his Indian roots.
Ghibli Studio allows users to transform their photos and videos into charming, Ghibli-style animations. The feature quickly went viral, with India emerging as the fastest-growing market for the tool.
In a recent video statement, Dhariwal said, “We were confident we were building something unique and valuable, but the scale of appreciation we received after launch exceeded all expectations.”
Prafulla Dhariwal is already a celebrated figure in the global tech community. Earlier, he led the team that developed OpenAI’s powerful GPT-4o model. An alumnus of IIT, his remarkable research contributions continue to leave a significant mark on the field of artificial intelligence.
