Actor Rajkummar Rao has responded to the criticism that met the first poster for Dada, the film in which he plays former India cricket captain Sourav Ganguly. Fans who saw the poster when it appeared in July said it looked AI-generated, and some questioned whether the figure resembled Ganguly at all. Speaking to Mashable India, Rao said the people behind it had learnt they should not have hurried the release.
“Because the AI work that we see, you know that it is AI. It’s not fun. You know it is fake. You can’t be making everything from AI.”
Rajkummar Rao, actor, to Mashable India · glamsham.com ↗
Rao added that the reaction also showed how devoted Ganguly's following is. The film is a biopic directed by Vikramaditya Motwane and covers the highs and lows of Ganguly's career. It was shot at the cricketer's own house and at Eden Gardens in Kolkata, and Rao said he spent a good deal of time with Ganguly, who spoke openly about his life. Dada is scheduled for release in May 2027.
The row led Rao into a wider comment on AI. He said the technology is on its way and cannot be stopped, but argued it should serve as a supporting tool and nothing the industry leans on completely. He said he worries about the livelihoods of the lakhs of people who work behind the camera in film.
He also argued that audiences can tell when something is machine-made: in his view such work looks fake and lacks human feeling, so it cannot replace everything. The report presents these as Rao's personal views rather than any statement of policy from the production.
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