Written for stage, realised by AI: How Amita Madhvani's 'Mohini' came to life in a new avatar

Fifteen years ago producer Amita Madhvani of Neerja Aarya fame wrote a musical about a young dancer chasing fame in Mumbai It was supposed to be a stage spectacle ldquoThink Broadway Think live musicians Think dancers stepping into the spotlight every evening to tell the story of a young woman finding herself amid the noise of the cityrdquo she paints a picture for us The project was called MohiniFor years it remained on paper Then technology caught up with the dreamToday Mohini exists as a 12part AIpowered microseries one of the more unusual storytelling experiments to emerge from Indiarsquos entertainment ecosystem Created by Madhvani and her team after months of learning Googlersquos AI tools building characters from scratch and training visual consistency frame by frame the series represents a collision of two seemingly opposite worlds oldschool storytelling and cuttingedge technologyCreated by Amita Madhvani and her team after months of learning Googlersquos AI tools building characters from scratch and training visual consistency frame by frame Mohini represents a collision of two seemingly opposite worlds oldschool storytelling and cuttingedge technologyThe irony isnrsquot lost on Madhvani The woman speaking passionately about Gemini character generation and AI workflows also lights up while talking about theatre handwritten lyrics Madhuri Dixit and the magic of old Hindi film songs ldquoAI itself is young But in any and every format we are all learningrdquo she saysThat curiosity has defined much of Madhvanirsquos professional life Before she became a producer she spent years in events At 46 she launched a fitness studio She has started several businesses creative ventures and production without allowing herself to become too attached to any one identity ldquoI follow my callingrdquo she says ldquoAt 46 I opened a fitness studio Before that I was into events for 10 years Now I am a creator I hadnrsquot done this So I am doing this And I am enjoying itrdquoThat appetite for reinvention eventually brought her back to Mohini Written roughly a decadeandhalf years ago the story follows a young dancer navigating ambition and the seductive pull of validation Madhvani describes it as a classic comingofage musicalldquoIt was always written as a stage musicalrdquo she recalls She envisioned live musicians multilingual subtitles and audiences gathering around this experience mdash entertainment in its simplest oldest form ldquoI wanted to reinvent all of thatrdquo she says ldquoPeople could get down from the train station and watch It was as simple as entertainment used to be They used to sing and narrate the whole storyrdquoThen the AI boom took the industry by surprise Unlike many industry veterans who reacted with suspicion Madhvanirsquos instinct was to experiment ldquoWe are not scared of technologyrdquo she says matteroffactly Her team began using AI for scheduling and workflow management Around the same time Google was conducting workshops introducing creators to emerging AI capabilities Madhvani and her collaborators mdash Mamata and Aditya mdash attendedWhat followed was months of toil The learning curve was steep The script was already written in Hindi The characters existed in Madhvanirsquos imagination Translating that world into AI required something far more complicated than simply entering promptsFirst came the characters Who was Mohini What was the emotional language of the world Every detail had to be fed into the system ldquoYou literally go back to the storybookrdquo she says ldquoBecause you have to feed this information so there is consistencyrdquoThe team spent months wrestling with continuity If Mohini twirled in one shot her movement needed to flow naturally into the next If a character opened a door the transition had to feel seamless What fascinated her even more was the cultural challenge Most AI models arrived carrying Western visual references and datasets ldquoI wanted the database somewhere deep down to have Indian characters and culturerdquo she saysThe result is an Indian story about a young Indian woman She is dealing with loneliness insecurity and the pressure of becoming somebody She takes trains She auditions She doubts herself She is consumed by her love for danceThe idea emerged from a concern Madhvani has about younger audiences and the emotional noise surrounding them Attention spans may be shrinking but she believes emotional needs remain unchanged ldquoI want to reach them with things that resonaterdquo she says ldquoThis is not a show where there is a drastic cliffhanger Keep it gentle Talk about life They need thatrdquoMusic plays a crucial role in achieving that texture Madhvani wrote the songs herself ldquoMy biggest joy in life has been lyrics Mohini expresses with music The team explored AIgenerated music and background scores while constantly evaluating what felt best suited If something possessed soul it stayed in the seriesrdquoOn the first glimpse of Mohini you think of Madhuri Dixit Madhvani laughs and says ldquoOh yes Madhuri is Mohini There is no question about thatrdquoNow as Mohini finds an audience online Madhvanirsquos ambitions are expanding again Season Two is already in development For now she seems content watching Mohini finally step onto a stageIt just happens to be a screen that fits in the palm of your hand