India-backed Varya cuts AI video generation cost by roughly 20x

Avataar AI has launched Varya, an India-focused video generation model built by distilling Alibaba's Wan 2.2. The company says Varya produces video in four steps rather than 50, generating a five-second 720p clip on an Nvidia H200 in 45 seconds versus 1,230 seconds for Wan 2.2. Its hosted price is planned at INR 0.48, or about $0.005, per second, roughly 20 times below several leading video services. Avataar also trained for Indian cultural context such as clothing, food, architecture, and festivals. Varya will be released with open weights and training data through India's AI Kosh portal, making it a meaningful regional model release rather than only an e-commerce feature.

Key details: June 12, 2026, Open-weight Varya video model, 5-second 720p clip in 45 seconds on Nvidia H200, About $0.005 per generated second, India AI Mission-backed.

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