AI meets sci-fi in Shekhar Kapur’s new series ‘Warlord’. Teaser out
Filmmaker Shekhar Kapur ventures into new creative territory with ‘Warlord’, a science fiction series created entirely using artificial intelligence (AI). The project’s first teaser is now available, with the full episode expected to release within two to three months.
The story is based on the lives of warriors who protect mystical crystals that power an entire galaxy. These crystals are fundamental particles beyond neutrinos that “create the universe” but exist for only “a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a millionth of a second,” Kapur explains.
Written by Shekhar Kapur, the series follows an interdimensional warrior who survives mortal peril with help from his lover in another dimension. “The only time that a lover can bring him to her is when he’s absolutely close to death. So, if the sword hits him, and he’s so close to death, she shifts him to a different dimension, and you might just see the sword going through him, but he’s not there,” he adds.
Kapur’s vision goes well beyond the series itself. He intends to make the production design and characters openly available for creators to use “a rainforest of ideas.” Users may adapt elements from ‘Warlord’ for a one per cent fee, provided their creations remain an open source for others to incorporate into their own art.
The director is collaborating with Studio Blo, a generative AI company founded in Mumbai and now in Dubai, London, and Los Angeles. Established in 2024, the company’s credits include Warner Music India’s music video ‘The Heartbreak Chhora,’ featuring Bollywood star Ayushmann Khurrana, and Music Today’s ‘Purana Pyar,’ featuring Aishan. Kartik Shah serves as the composer for ‘Warlord.’ The project marks a significant departure from traditional production processes, with Kapur noting that sequences which once took “months and months” to create are now completed in just two weeks.
Calling AI a democratising force, Kapur believes it will disrupt the dominance of major studios and streaming platforms. “The studios have followed the wrong model. AI is going to destroy the myth of budgets, destroy the myth of being big,” he says, likening the shift to Napster’s disruption of the music industry.
One of the series’ most distinctive aspects is its unique design aesthetic. Kapur reveals that the spaceships are inspired by jellyfish and envisioned as living, organic vessels. “In the distant future, we’ll have materials that will heal themselves,” he says. “So spaceships will be made out of living and organic materials that heal and live.” These ships travel through space “like sails using the winds of the universe,” propelled by “the force of the particles, the fundamental particles of space.”
The ‘Warlord’ universe is set to expand into films and games, while Kapur also continues work on ‘Ebony McQueen’ and ‘Masoom…’ ‘The Next Generation’. He plans to establish an AI-focused film school in Mumbai’s Dharavi.
