Cheaper, faster, and culturally aware, Avataar's video AI is built for India's scale
Indian startup Avataar has launched Varya, a text-to-video AI model that generates clips for about 0.48 rupees, or roughly $0.005, per second. The company says this is around 20 times cheaper than global tools such as Veo, Kling, Luma, and Runway. Varya was built by distilling Alibaba's open Wan 2.2 model down to 4 generation steps from 50, letting it run about 10 times faster.
Key Takeaways
- Avataar AI's distilled video model is priced at $0.005 for every second of generation India's AI model output has been slow compared to the U.S., Europe, and China.
Only a few startups are releasing models, and most of them are large language models or voice models.
- The result is a model that runs in four steps rather than Wan 2.2's 50, producing video 10 times faster and at a fraction of the cost.
To put that in concrete terms: using an NVIDIA H200 GPU, Varya can generate a 5-second 720p clip in 45 seconds, compared to 1,230 seconds for Wan 2.2.
- Current AI video models are too expensive for population-scale use in India.
If video AI is going to reach students, teachers, MSMEs, creators, enterprises, and public services, costs have to come down dramatically.
- Anyone can try it now on its website using text prompts or reference images.
Varya's launch reflects a fundamental tradeoff in India's AI ambitions.
- Ivan Mehta Ivan covers global consumer tech developments at TechCrunch.
Stats & Key Facts
- #Indian startup Avataar has launched Varya, a text-to-video AI model that generates clips for about 0.48 rupees, or roughly $0.005, per second.
- #Varya was built by distilling Alibaba's open Wan 2.2 model down to 4 generation steps from 50, letting it run about 10 times faster.
- #It is one of 12 startups selected for India's roughly $1.2 billion AI Mission.
- #Avataar AI's distilled video model is priced at $0.005 for every second of generation India's AI model output has been slow compared to the U.S., Europe, and China.
Avataar AI's distilled video model is priced at $0.005 for every second of generation India's AI model output has been slow compared to the U.S., Europe, and China. Only a few startups are releasing models, and most of them are large language models or voice models. To encourage more development, the government launched the India AI Mission , a roughly $1.2 billion initiative that - among other things - gives selected startups access to subsidized GPU compute in exchange for releasing their models publicly.
One of the 12 startups selected for the program, Avataar AI , has launched a new video model called Varya that is built to understand local context - such as identifying different festivals, food, and clothing. The Peak XV-backed startup, which focuses on creating video tools for e-commerce , didn't build Varya from scratch. It started with Wan 2.2, a publicly available video generation model released by Alibaba, and used a technique called distillation - essentially compressing the model's capabilities into a leaner, faster version optimized for Avataar's specific use cases.
The result is a model that runs in four steps rather than Wan 2.2's 50, producing video 10 times faster and at a fraction of the cost. To put that in concrete terms: using an NVIDIA H200 GPU, Varya can generate a 5-second 720p clip in 45 seconds, compared to 1,230 seconds for Wan 2.2. The most striking aspect of Varya may be its price.
For more details please read the original article at TechCrunch AI.
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