AI’s Mahabharata: A Digital Draupadi, A Soulless Saga

The Mahabharata is not just a story it’s a philosophical ocean, it deals with dharma, karma, moksha, and inner realisation.

Since childhood, we all deeply connected to the great epics, Mahabharata and Ramayana. But now, if machines begin to define and portray the roles of Draupadi, Arjuna, and Sri Krishna, can we truly accept it?

A new version of the Mahabharata, titled Mahabharat–Ek Dharmayudh, has started streaming on JioHotstar, and it's unlike any other adaptation.

There are no real sets, actual actors, or on-location filming in this fully artificial intelligence-generated production.

When AI recreates the Mahabharat along with human-like characters, something is often missing, and that “something” is what gives real art and storytelling their soul. We always search for emotional expressions on Draupadi, Arjun and Bheeshma and other characters' faces, not the grand settings, that is only secondary.

AI can simulate emotions like sorrow, pride, love, anger , but it does not feel them.
The Mahabharata’s power lies in the emotional truth and relatability of its characters, like....

Draupadi’s humiliation and rage, Arjuna’s moral turmoil on the battlefield, Bhishma’s vow and silent suffering. AI can retell these emotional turmoils logically, but it struggles to capture the aura of spirituality, the mystic silence between words, and the moral dilemmas that can only emerge from human conscience and reflection.

Human storytellers/ actors bring imperfection, pauses, biases, emotions, that make stories real.True emotional connection comes from shared humanity!!

Can a machine truly understand devotion, dharma, or the emotional depth of human suffering?

If AI starts interpreting the words of Krishna or the grief of Draupadi, aren’t we replacing feeling with code?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ELmlmlvkNF8

Lack of emotional depth: Many reviewers feel the AI-generated show loses the "soul or intensity" of the Mahabharata, resulting in a "lifeless" and "cold" viewing experience compared to human-led adaptations. Technical and visual errors are many, with a few pointed out. Despite high-level ambition, critics pointed out flaws, such as a modern bedside table appearing in the ancient narrative.

A few felt like it is disrespectful to the story. Some viewers feel that using AI disrespects the epic story, suggesting that it may be too early for the technology to handle such a complex narrative.

In any case, opinions on this bold endeavor, which is defining the epic with mechanical monotony, are divided! What is your opinion on this?

The trailer looks totally lifeless.

But...AI is a tool. The hand that weilds the chisel determines what kind of sculpture is made with the tool. Also the quality of the chisel matters.

Some AI generated paintings take us to a realm of beauty that many real paintings can not touch.

So use of AI to represent Divinity is not necessarily insult to Divinity. How we use it..that matters.

Thank you so much for tagging dear 💚💚.

Yeah let this corporations ride the ai wave

In future they need to create ai audience too cause only robot will love watching this shit

And star has sone nerve green lighting this shit. The heads of star were born in the era where we had two blockbuster Mahabharata shows. Yet they wasted money for this. Money which they could have given to their producers, cause judging by star shows, chawl people in their cupboard have better clothes than the actors of star serials.

To me, even a comic has more 'soul' than anything created by AI (which, to me, is just an information tool). I won't support this kind of visual story-telling.

I have watched one episode of it and definitely felt the lack of emotion as compared to real humans.

At the very instance, even I felt this was not the correct thing to do to our Epic. But then, I would not say that it is disrespectful to the epic, but it needs to evolve further to express emotions more effectively and do justice to the story.

There are many forms of storytelling, the most basic being, maybe, vocal, then writing, and people enacting on stage. And then, with technology, came film and television, which became another form of storytelling.

Vocal and written storytelling did not have humans to enact the expressions, but it came alive in front of our eyes because of the effort put into bringing out the emotion. Perfection is needed in any form of storytelling to bring out the situation and emotion.

I would say, with further technological advancement, AI can become another form of storytelling, but it needs to evolve better and bring out better emotions when they are creating such an epic.

I would conclude by saying that AI needs to put in more and more effort to be placed if they intend to showcase such epic and make it impactful. But everything takes time to evolve.

I would appreciate the effort of trying to bring out such a grand story from AI. So many technicians and architects work hard behind the scenes to bring this much out.

Let's embrace the amalgamation of tech with art.

I am in the middle of agreeing and disagreeing with you. But I totally understand your perspective here.

Originally posted by: tellyme

I have watched one episode of it and definitely felt the lack of emotion as compared to real humans.

At the very instance, even I felt this was not the correct thing to do to our Epic. But then, I would not say that it is disrespectful to the epic, but it needs to evolve further to express emotions more effectively and do justice to the story.

There are many forms of storytelling, the most basic being, maybe, vocal, then writing, and people enacting on stage. And then, with technology, came film and television, which became another form of storytelling.

Vocal and written storytelling did not have humans to enact the expressions, but it came alive in front of our eyes because of the effort put into bringing out the emotion. Perfection is needed in any form of storytelling to bring out the situation and emotion.

I would say, with further technological advancement, AI can become another form of storytelling, but it needs to evolve better and bring out better emotions when they are creating such an epic.

I would conclude by saying that AI needs to put in more and more effort to be placed if they intend to showcase such epic and make it impactful. But everything takes time to evolve.

I would appreciate the effort of trying to bring out such a grand story from AI. So many technicians and architects work hard behind the scenes to bring this much out.

Let's embrace the amalgamation of tech with art.

I am in the middle of agreeing and disagreeing with you. But I totally understand your perspective here.

Yes, for the time being, let us adjust to this new visual version of storytelling. The fact that the human element is missing is what bothers me the most.

Thank you for sharing your views on this topic.

Sorry I Won't Watch The Series It's Not Appealing To Me

Thanks For Sharing

not interested in watching the series, not appealing to me. but thanks for sharing

Knowing that even the creating of comics needed time (and the talent of makers) to tell the stories in an engaging manner... AI is visual, too, so yes, it may need time to give also this technique 'soul'... in the end, also AI is a creation done by humans