SITARA

SITARA is a Hindi-language short film with English subtitles, about ten minutes long (628 seconds on YouTube), written and directed by Abhik Banerjee (the YouTube page spells it Abhick). Rollsound is credited as producer, and press reports say Banerjee made it with his creative team in association with Rollsound Studios. Banerjee is also tied to Tamasha Studios in coverage, and the film was uploaded to the ROLLSOUND YouTube channel on 6 September 2026 as an independent film.

The press describes it as an AI film or AI short film, and the upload is tagged #AIFilm. The pages read do not name the models or tools used or say what was done by hand, so the production method is not known beyond that. The YouTube description lists it as an official selection of the Higgsfield Global Film Festival 2026.

SITARA took second place at the first Astana AI Film Festival in Kazakhstan, held 1 to 3 October 2026. The festival received 8,067 entries from 125 countries and sent 25 films to the final, judged by an international jury that included Audrey Azoulay and Balaji Srinivasan. Third place went to Spain's Looking For Perseida, and the Grand Prix of $450,000 to Latvia's The First Honest Day.

Reports disagree on the prize: Qazinform-based coverage (Korea Times, NewKerala) says $200,000, while the Tribune and Indian Television say $250,000, about Rs 2.4 crore. Indian Television also says Banerjee received an Outstanding Artistic Achievement recognition.

Tamasha Studios founder Mithilesh Bhagat said the company treats AI as a creative medium across micro-dramas, series, films, serials, animation and hybrid shoots. Banerjee said the interesting question is what cinema becomes possible because these tools exist.