UAE: How Viewers Will 'Live Inside Movies' In Future As Cinema Evolves

For over a century, cinema has shaped our imagination - but according to Namit Malhotra, that era is about to evolve dramatically. Speaking at the BRIDGE Summit in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, the CEO of Double Negative (DNEG) argued that the next generation of entertainment will be defined not by passive viewing, but by participatory immersion.

Through AI-driven digital likenesses, multilingual localisation and cinematic realism, studios are preparing to deliver worlds that audiences can enter, explore and emotionally inhabit.

Malhotra opened his session by showing a rapid-fire reel of the studio's most recognisable work - a reminder, he said, that“seeing is believing". The showcase spanned DNEG's journey from its beginnings in Mumbai's tech-enabled creative sector to its current footprint of global studios and Oscar-winning productions.

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But the question he wanted the audience to focus on was simple: what comes next?

“For the last 100 years, cinema has been at the forefront of creative storytelling,” he said.“We sit in a theatre, and a screen tells us stories that make us laugh, cry, celebrate or feel thrilled.” That framework, he argued, is now shifting.“As we go into the next decade and beyond... the future of storytelling is going to be a lot more experiential. We're going to actually go and live in these worlds, not just see them.”

He likened this shift to the themed environments already emerging across the UAE - from the Harry Potter exhibition to Ferrari World - where audiences move inside a constructed universe rather than watching it from afar.

Malhotra suggested that new technologies, especially AI, will accelerate the evolution of this immersive grammar. Tools enabling photorealistic digital humans, secure identity-based likenesses, and AI-generated dialogue and visuals could redefine how stories are designed and consumed.

“The powerful use of AI can make that experience much more immersive and believable,” he said. Once audiences can step into the environment itself, he added,“it'll change the grammar of how stories are told and what you experience.”

He pointed to Formula One as an example of how spectatorship is already shifting.“Whether you watch the Formula 1 race on the weekend in Abu Dhabi, or now you start to consume it and live within it... you appreciate the nuances a lot more,” he said, describing entertainment's move toward fully embodied experiences.

Malhotra also spoke about 'HanuMan', a new project rooted in Indian cultural history. The IP, he explained, draws on thousands of years of storytelling and will eventually span far more than a single film.“The evolution of the IP is meant to go much further beyond,” he said.“It's not going to be limited to a movie or a game or a musical experience - it's much more than that.”

He recalled a conversation with composer Hans Zimmer, who asked to understand the depth of the world and characters,“because if something lives through time, over generations, it has a lot more relevance than we can appreciate.”

On what audiences expect today, Malhotra said the demand is clear: every new generation wants an experience they have never seen before. Directors repeatedly approach DNEG with the same brief -“let's do something that's never been done.” That expectation, he said, drives the studio's design and innovation efforts.

Before closing, Malhotra revealed that DNEG is also launching the official Arabic version of its featured content on YouTube.“That will be a real one for people in this part of the world to also enjoy,” he said.

He ended with a simple message to industry creators and audiences at BRIDGE: the next era of entertainment is no longer just about telling stories - it is about letting people live inside them.

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