Candidates queue up for Kerala techie's AI campaign videos

This election season, Kanhangad native Riyas Amaladukkam is a busy bee. His AI-generated campaign videos for candidates have been a massive hit.

Riyas first created a video for Najma Rafi, a candidate contesting for Kanhangad Municipality, and it became viral on social media. The clip garnered 8 lakh views on a single day. Though a bit burdened by the huge demand from various political parties, Riyas is quite thrilled by the output and the reach of the videos he has made.

A political worker, Riyaz, knows well how to create campaign videos effectively. Every task of creating the videos, including the scripting and editing, is carried out by Riyaz himself. The number is rising each day and the demand mainly comes from Malappuram district. The videos predominantly feature election symbols of the candidates, issues in the ward, cinematic stories, modelling visuals, intro of candidates, among others.

"Most of them feature ordinary people conversing about developmental needs of the place, like good roads, amenities needed in the village, protection for from wild animals, drinking water and so on," Riyas says. "There are also videos of AI-generated versions of the leaders seeking votes," he adds. Ten to fifteen videos are made for each of the candidates, who mainly demand videos showing themselves (the AI versions) seeking votes.

What drives most of the candidates after AI videos is the time-saving factor. "All that a candidate needs to provide is a photograph. The rest of the story, action and drama, is crafted by the video creator. Meanwhile, the candidates can spend more time with people and go campaigning," says Riyas, who creates videos for any candidate irrespective of party affiliations.

"Another advantage of these videos is the accessibility. The communication is delivered to hundreds of thousands of people within minutes, while making a real video might take more than a day in rehearsing, shooting and editing," says Riyaz, who primarily uses AI tools like Gemini and its Nano Banana Pro versions and so on.

Meanwhile, the State Election Commission keeps a close watch on such videos. Therefore, extreme care is taken while making AI campaign videos. Deep fake videos, visuals insulting women and so on have been strictly prohibited. Breaching these regulations may also invite punitive measures against the candidates.

"But that doesn't and shouldn't mean that one needs to be wary of creating AI-generated campaign videos. They can be made successfully, following the guidelines," Riyaz says.

A software engineer, basically, Riyas is a freelance journalist now and also runs a YouTube news channel. About the trend in political campaigning that has undergone changes over the years, Riyas says that everything has gone digital now and that AI has taken centre stage.
He believes that AI will dominate political campaigns even more exponentially in the days to come.