Avataar AI, a Peak XV-backed startup focused on video tools for e-commerce, has launched Varya, a new video generation model designed specifically for the Indian market. The company is one of 12 startups chosen for India's $1.2 billion India AI Mission, which gives selected companies access to subsidized GPU compute in exchange for releasing their models publicly. Varya was built to understand local context — recognizing regional festivals, food, clothing, and architecture — a gap Avataar says most global models miss, often producing stereotyped or generic outputs.
Rather than starting from scratch, Avataar built Varya by distilling Alibaba's open-source Wan 2.2 video model, compressing its capabilities into a leaner version tailored to specific use cases. The result is a model that runs in just four steps compared to Wan 2.2's 50, producing video 10 times faster. On an NVIDIA H200 GPU, Varya generates a 5-second 720p clip in 45 seconds, while Wan 2.2 takes 1,230 seconds for the same output.
The most aggressive part of Varya's pitch is pricing. Avataar plans to charge ₹0.48 (roughly $0.005) per second of video on its hosted service — about 20 times cheaper than competitors like Google's Veo, Kling, Luma, and Runway, which typically charge $0.10 or more per second. "India is a video-first market. We see this across every large consumer internet product in India: video wins over text. Current AI video models are too expensive for population-scale use in India," Peak XV managing director Rajan Anandan told TechCrunch, adding that cost is the biggest unlock for AI adoption across students, teachers, small businesses, creators, and public services. Varya will be released as an open-weight model, though the company has not yet specified a timeline.