Varun’s Film Under Fire As AI Baby Teaser Backfires
What was intended as cute has instead been labelled “creepy” and “tone-deaf” by many social media users
Poor Varun Dhawan. Nothing he does seems to go right these days. His upcoming comedy Hai Jawaani Toh Ishq Hona Hai, directed by his father David Dhawan, is generating attention for all the wrong reasons.
An AI-generated teaser featuring two babies in conversation (Varun reportedly plays a double role in the film) has triggered outrage online. The toddlers, resembling Varun, are shown discussing their parentage, only to discover that both their fathers share the same name: Jass (Varun Dhawan).
What was perhaps intended as cute and quirky has instead been labelled “creepy” and “tone-deaf” by many social media users.
In a swift, if somewhat ineffective, attempt at damage control, the film’s makers issued a clarification. According to them, the AI sequence was conceived and executed by a third-party creative agency hired for the launch campaign, independent of the way the film itself was made.
The statement read: “David Dhawan directed the film the way he always has — on set, with actors, and with instinct.”
But the clarification may have come too late, as the damage appears to be done, with the film landing on many viewers’ hate list.
