The outskirts of Hyderabad in Shankarpally have Nag Ashwin’s Telugu magnum opus Kalki 2898 AD sets, which feature Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Kamal Haasan and Deepika Padukone. In one corner, there is a secret door to the mystical Shambala. One of his treasured places on the set is reached by a white staircase that Nag Ashwin bounds across.
The director remarks that this place gives him an excellent view of the sun setting every last day he worked evenings. Sequel will have parts of it being destroyed and reconstructed due to heavy rains damaging some of those sets. Right now they get a short rest after such series of hectic workdays. The following day he has a vacation so for now it’s exclusive interview time for him.
Nag Ashwin looks down at the land holding Shambala’s sets and says, “We spent a lot of time conceptualising and creating colonies for people of different nationalities and religions inside shambala; it was like city planning.”
It is shown how diverse ethnic groups and religions converge in Shambala hoping for a new beginning. “It is a microcosm of people looking for hope”, he said referring to characters such as Rumi (Rajendra Prasad), Mariam (Shobhana), Kyra (Anna Ben), Veeran (Pasupathy) among others.
However, Nag disclosed that he had toyed with the idea of opening the film with events in Shambala but eventually resorted to Kurukshetra parts which establish Ashwatthama’s plight.
For years, Shambala has been referred to as Hidden Land by Tibetans or Shangrila by Indians. This notion is embodied in the impenetrable Himalayan ranges leading up to the entrance of Shambhala; for readers or movie buffs, it also brings visions of Wakanda from Black Panther coming into view or where Platform 9 ¾ appears on the walls of railway station in Harry Potter series.
“Somehow this was all part of our subconscious thinking when we were at the planning stage because this is what we watch or read.“ By then, we had already made our plans and storyboards; however, we found out what Wakanda was all about too late. Nevertheless, Indian literature abounds with instances indicating that Kailasa will one day reveal itself near Kailasa at a particular moment in time; some believe that Shambhala lies within Kailasa.”
An ambitious combination between Mahabharata and dystopian science fiction can be seen through Kalki 2898 AD. Nag Ashwin is pleased that especially younger people including kids have been eager to learn more about Indian epics as the film has gained popularity among them. A huge fan of Star Wars from childhood and later on Marvel superhero films, he made Kalki for his 10-year-old self, but through the prism of India.
Nag says, “The idea of reimagining Kasi as the last surviving city was an interesting starting point.” Ashwatthama’s living spaces in Kasi, the people of Kasi and The Complex were meant to symbolize how demigods lived underground while the complex was under full control by evil forces or rakshasas. Nag further explains, “While walking on this surface imagine if we begin wondering what if there is an ancient person from another yuga beneath the surface. Every depiction that we had made about kali yuga is an inversion of sorts.”
Part one of Kalki teased us with Supreme Yaskin (Kamal Haasan)’s uncanny ways and his Project K. His chamber’s murals show the evolution process of humanity. Positioned at the center of a womb-like structure, another transformation awaits Yaskin. “Our idea was to introduce Yaskin as a mysterious, shadowy figure.” Much more about his background and reason will be in part two but for now; let it be known that Yaskin’s experiment makes him a superpower leading him create his archenemy which sets off a series of events.
“This is a classic tale where the bad guy ends up making his own enemy.”
Ever since the film came out, there have been questions on whether it was right for Ashwatthama to cross paths with Bhairava, who reincarnates himself as Karna (Prabhas) so as to save an unborn child in order to bring hope to a world which is crumbling and thus achieve redemption.
Nag alludes here that he has witnessed a couple of theories floating around on social media attempting to decode the film. “It’s nice that some people think Dulquer Salmaan’s character is Parasuram,” he chuckles. For example, he wrote about Dulquer being a pilot who adopts an unwanted child just like Karnan was raised by Suthradhari.
“We never thought of Dulquer’s role as Parasuram because that figure was Kalki’s tutor in the scriptures.” Apart from this obvious parallelism there is another one which can be identified when watching Deepika Padukone as SUM-80 or Sumathi walking through fire, similar to how Vasudeva carried Krishna across Yamuna river.
Amitabh Bachchan plays the ancient hero Ashwatthama, who is an imposing eight-foot-tall figure. For the technical team, it was a question of making things look real. “Good visual effects are invisible.” Planning starts at the writing stage. We sent back and forth around 20 to 30 times for some of the VFX shots for Ashwatthama and some other portions.
On few occasions I would say that this sand texture does not look authentic or that something in the far background should appear more realistic. And as I watched it, I realized that these were passing shots and most people wouldn’t know if it was a VFX or not. It was nice doing it.”
Nag admits to having received accolades about how visually appealing Kalki has been done with technically efficient elements…Ask him where he gets his technical team from; cinematographers for example, Nag’s response will be “It’s mostly gut instinct.”
Dani Sanchez-Lopez did Mahanati while Djordje Stojiljkovic worked on Kalki – they were only on their second feature film project when they came together with him according to Nag. “Djordje is young and I felt that like Dani he has got a unique eye so we wanted to use that freshness and see what we could achieve…We might lose out in terms of experience but gain in another way because young technicians do not necessarily play by the book.”
With its technical finesse, Nag feels Kalki will attract worldwide audience beyond Indian diaspora due its storyline. “I think even when we watch Greek stories or Roman stories we find them interesting why not them watching ours too?”
Asked whether there are any plans similar to SS Rajamouli’s RRR regarding marketing on global platforms, his response is “We need to wait and see how much organic interest develops before deciding if it needs further push; basically a little bit of both.”
Some minor irritants
Science of the Complex: “We would have liked to explain how the Complex has taken away all life-sustaining elements such as air, food and water. But I didn’t want a voiceover because I hate them.”
Where is Roxie (Disha Patani)? “There were a few other portions that could have better defined her character but we could not fit them in. There will be some resolution for her in the next part.”
The party song: “I know there are people who feel that a few minutes from first half ended up taking out the depth of story. So, maybe we should not have gone for an entire song and dance sequence to bring in Bhairava or show what lies inside The Complex. It was a kind of crowdservice. Prabhas fans are loving his dance steps… but it felt out of place with us too… In plain storytelling, the song could’ve been avoided. I think we were trying to balance a lot of things.”
The cameos: Some cameos appeared to add nothing more than being entertaining; yet they sparked some discussion about them as well. For example, Ram Gopal Varma’s cameo helped establish how an egg costs 5000 units in Kasi.
But already, we had said that food and water is not enough, so it might have seemed repetitive to some viewers.”
Trivia: Did you know that the voice of Amitabh Bachchan in the Telugu film was Artificial Intelligence generated?
Nag Ashwin had told one writer before releasing Mahanati – a biopic on late legendary actor Savitri, that he would like his stories narrated through movies and they must be worth something. Yevade Subramaniam debuted with Nag’s third film, Kalki which has been such a humongous task from the journey of an egocentric protagonist headed for mythical Dudh Kasi for self-realization.
Why can’t I make things easier for myself sometimes? “Kalki has been challenging because as everything grew in complexity and scale, demanding more from us. But since it all started with me, I could not sit back too long and think like ‘why did I do all this?’”.
The little entertainment came in form of Bujji & Bhairava-an animated prequel series. “It was fun writing and executing it. It will come up with two more episodes within a few months.”
For part two Kalki however, the team will reconvene in some weeks time to plan; it is expected to be bigger. “Yaskin is stepping out of his vimanam; hence obviously it will be bigger.” Additionally, Part two will introduce a fourth world called ‘Flux lands’ apart from Kasi, Complex and Shambala. “We barely mentioned the ‘flux lands’ which are going to be explored”.
