EXCLUSIVE | 'Piku' director Shoojit Sircar: 'I don't think we have evolved as such in cinema, AI is not going to be a threat because...'

The Indian Film Festival of Melbourne (IFFM) 2025 commenced with great fanfare, hosting its official press conference in the presence of some of the most celebrated names from the Indian film industry alongside distinguished delegates from the Victorian Government.

The event saw a glittering line-up of guests, including Bollywood icon Aamir Khan, celebrated comedian and actor Vir Das, acclaimed performers Tillotama Shome, Jim Sarbh, and Aditi Rao Hydari, visionary filmmakers Shoojit Sircar, Ashwiny Iyer Tiwari, and R.S. Prasanna (director of Sitaare Zameen Par), as well as acclaimed casting director Mukesh Chhabra.

Sircar has been appointed as a judge and jury member for the prestigious short film competition segment at IFFM 2025. And in an exclusive interview with Firstpost, talked about the same and a lot more.

Edited excerpts from the interview

What is the importance of short films for you as a filmmaker and even as an audience?

Short films are mainstream films now. So, it’s no more judged as just a short film. But I think there is a huge section of audience who are absolutely dedicated to short films. They are a very important part of festivals and awards and exhibitions. I think it is no more just a diploma. It’s become absolutely professional and a mainstream like any other long format terms. And I was thinking in the coming future, this would be commercially viable also in projecting in the cinema studio using cinema.

What are your expectations from this year’s festival?

The films the and the expectation have increased. Earlier, the entries were mostly from Australia, but this year, they opened up their entries from India and Australia. So there is a two award section, one for Australian entries and one for Indian entries. So it’s become bigger in terms of its reach. And, also, this year, I’m expecting more of the fiction, and in short term category that I saw even documentaries in the same category.

How much have you seen cinema change or evolve. It has been 20 years for you as a filmmaker, but you have been consuming films for a much longer time as an audience. So have you seen any changes in the way movies are made or stories are told.

We are evolving, but I think, we’ve seen many patterns and styles and genres, coming from the West and here. I mean, there are many genres that we are experimenting and studying. But I think more or less in terms of the format and size, everything is similar. The experiences have changed because of IMAX possibly coming in or a 3D coming in, but I think storytelling has not changed since since tit started possibly. So I think in terms of cinema, the storytelling pattern has remained in a lot of different formats and styles. But I don’t think we have evolved as such in cinema. The listening experiences have evolved. Watching experiences have evolved. And now because of AI, I think it will be more important to be more organic.

There was a writers’ strike in Hollywood and AI was one of the reasons. Do you feel AI can be a potential threat or do you feel it can have its advantages also in Hindi cinema?

AI can be of great help also in your future. Everything in technology and science depends upon ethics. There are certain way and ethics that you you apply in yourself, or yourself. We have seen in many technologies the misuse of ethics. So it’s purely subjective and personal. So I think science will keep inventing and evolving. But I think it’s the people and how they use it and how they apply their principles and, ethics. And, I don’t think it’s going to be a threat.

And you are also one of the directors for My Melbourne 2. So what can we expect and how excited are you to tell this story?

I am very excited. I must tell you that it has some really interesting themes than last year. And there were such wonderful directors. So I think this year also, we have a bunch of core people and four different kinds of filmmakers. And it brings India and Australia closer. It brings them closer in terms of their stories. We are mentoring these films, and then it will be shot in Australia with an Australian team and Australian crew and mix and in Indian stories, Australian stories mixed together. So there’s a lot of cross culture. That’s what I’m excited about. I’ve never done this before.