Kalki 2898 AD

Kalki 2898 AD
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Nag Ashwin
Screenplay by	Nag Ashwin Burra, Sai Madhav (Additional Dialogues)
Story by	Nag Ashwin
Produced by	Dutt, C. Aswani
Starring	Prabhas Amitabh Bachchan Kamal Haasan Deepika Padukone Disha Patani Brahmanandam
Cinematography	Djordje Stojiljkovic
Edited by	Venkateswara Rao Kotagiri
Music by	Santhosh Narayanan
Production company	Movies Vyjayanthi
Distributed by	AA Films
Release date	27 June 2024
Country	India
Languages	Telugu Hindi
Budget	₹600 crore

Nag Ashwin is the writer and director of the upcoming Indian epic dystopian science-fiction action film Kalki 2898 AD, also stylized as Kalki 2898 − A.D. Under the banner of Vyjayanthi Movies, C. Aswani Dutt produced the film, which was mostly shot in Telugu and certain sequences were reshot in Hindi. The movie is set in a post-apocalyptic world in the year 2898 AD and is inspired by Hindu scriptures. Within the intended Kalki Cinematic Universe, it is the first motion picture.  With Prabhas playing the main part, the ensemble cast of the movie also stars Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Brahmanandam, and Disha Patani in significant roles.

The COVID-19 pandemic caused a year-long delay in Kalki’s manufacture, which was first disclosed in February 2020.Finally, in July 2021, filming got underway at a futuristic set at

Premise

Set in the desertified city of Kasi in 2898 AD—the sole known city—and against the backdrop of Indian mythology and a dystopian society overseen by Supreme Yaskin, the ruling class, from a hovering megastructure known as the Complex. The movie tells the story of a voyage that spans thousands of years, from the events of the Mahabharata in 3102 BC, the start of the Kali Yuga, to 2898 CE. The central character of the story is the mysterious Kalki, the tenth and last incarnation of the Hindu god Vishnu.

Cast

Production

Development

Prabhas (L) and Nag Ashwin collaborated for the first time in Kalki, 2898 AD.

Nag Ashwin announced that he has been working on an original narrative and script for a while and that production would soon start following the success of Mahanati in 2019. In August of that year, Vyjayanthi Movies released a casting call for writers, designers, and visual artists, stating that the filming will start in September. The production company announced that Prabhas would be the film’s lead actor on February 26, 2020, which happened to be their studio’s 50th anniversary. The film, which is tentatively titled #PrabhasNagAshwin and #Prabhas21, was supposed to start filming by late 2020 and be released in several languages by late 2021, according to Ashwin. [22] However, in May of the following year,

Casting

Kamal Haasan (bottom), Amitabh Bachchan (middle), and Deepika Padukone (top)

Deepika Padukone, a Hindi cinema actress, signed on to play the lead alongside Prabhas in July 2020. As for Ashwin, she said that her character will be a “surprise” because it was something that “no mainstream lead has [ever] done before,” but Padukone said she was “beyond thrilled” to be part of the film.Padukone makes her Telugu cinematic debut in this picture.According to Bollywood Hungama, her role was originally “not substantial” but was changed to better fit her celebrity.Amitabh Bachchan was given a full-length role in the movie in October.”His character’s name was the working title of an early draft,” according to Ashwin, who expressed how significant his involvement was.Bachchan would play her first major part in the movie.

Disha Patani made her Telugu film debut with the cast in May 2022, following her role in Loafer (2015).After appearing in Cheekati Rajyam (2015), Kamal Haasan returned to Telugu cinema in June 2023 when he joined the cast.He called his part “a cameo.”Dulquer Salmaan told the press that he had visited the movie’s sets in August 2023, but he never acknowledged or refuted his involvement.When Anna Ben joined the cast in February 2024, it was her Telugu and Hindi film debut.

Pre-production

“Project K” was acknowledged as the movie, and it was used as its working title.According to Ashwin, futuristic cars and cutting-edge technology have to be created for the movie. Although computer-generated imagery (CGI) can be used to duplicate them, Ashwin chose to build these cars from the ground up with a committed team of engineers because he wanted them to seem “authentic and genuine”.Ashwin asked billionaire Anand Mahindra for technical assistance in March 2022 so that these kinds of vehicles may be built.

After a few days, Mahindra replied that their company, Mahindra & Mahindra, will support the production team from their Chennai campus, Mahindra Research Valley.The creators built a futuristic set in July 2021 at Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City.

A. R. Rahman was first asked to write the soundtrack for the movie in August 2020. Rahman declined to join on for the movie, thus Ashwin kept the cinematographer Dani Sanchez-Lopez and composer Mickey J. Meyer from his previous film Mahanati (2018).However, Djordje Stojiljkovic, a Serbian, eventually took Dani Sanchez-Lopez’s place as the official film’s cinematographer. In an interview from February 2023, Dutt revealed that Santosh Narayanan had taken Meyer’s place as the composer and that a female Bollywood composer had also written a song for the movie. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao became involved in the project as a mentor.

Kalki 2898 AD is the most expensive Indian film ever made, with an estimated expenditure of ₹600 crore (US$72 million).

 

Filming

The movie’s regular shooting was originally scheduled to start in November 2020. However, the COVID-19 epidemic caused it to be delayed until the next year.In July 2021, principal photography got underway in Hyderabad on the festival of Guru Purnima, after Bachchan appeared in a muhurtam shot. Scenes starring Bachchan, Padukone, and Prabhas were shot after they joined the project in December 2021.February 2022 was the date of the shoot’s second schedule.

Prabhas was supposed to begin filming his solo parts in April 2022, however his future films, Salaar and Kalki 2898 AD, have been postponed due to his knee surgery.90% of the filming took place on sets constructed in Ramoji Film City. Bachchan filmed a scene at the Raidurg metro station in June. Padukone and Prabhas filmed a car chase scene in Hyderabad in July. By the conclusion of this schedule, Prabhas had shot most of his parts.

The movie’s principal photography was scheduled to end in January 2023, after which eight months would be needed for post-production and visual effects. But in March 2023, while the movie was still being filmed, Bachchan suffered a rib injury and was told to recover in Mumbai. By June 2023, almost 70% of the filming had been finished. In March 2024, a love song starring Prabhas and Disha Patani was shot in Italy, which included time spent in the Royal Palace of Caserta.

Release

Marketing

The first glimpse of the movie was unveiled on July 19, 2023.On July 20, 2023, Kalki 2898 – A.D. made its debut as the first Indian film to be shown at San Diego Comic-Con’s Hall-H. Prior to this, a limited comic-strip panel depicting a significant scene in the film involving “The Raiders” (Kali’s followers) and Bhairava was released.

Prabhas’s character as Bhairava was unveiled in a poster issued by the makers on the festival of Maha Shivaratri.On April 21, 2024, a fresh teaser featuring Ashwatthama was released. Amitabh Bachchan played Ashwatthama, the immortal character from the ancient Indian epic Mahabharata. The producers used a poster starring Prabhas, Amitabh Bachchan, and Deepika Padukone to reveal the new release date on April 27.Prabhas surprised moviegoers and cricket enthusiasts on April 30, 2024, when he made an appearance in an IPL promotional video as Bhaiava during the Mumbai Indians vs. Lucknow Super Giants match.In his role as Ashwatthama, Amitabh Bachchan made an appearance on May 2, 2024, inspiring the Indian cricket team as they were ready for the ICC Men’s T20.

At an event held in Hyderabad’s Ramoji Film City on May 22, 2024, a teaser for Prabhas’ robot sidekick, AI humanoid vehicle “Bujji” was unveiled. Anand Mahindra highlighted that the engineers at Mahindra Research Valley assisted the Kalki 2898 AD team in realizing their idea for the futuristic car and wrote, “we are so proud of Nag Ashwin and his tribe of filmmakers who aren’t afraid to think big.”Bujji and Bhairava, a two-episode animated prequel that was uploaded on Amazon Prime Video on May 27, 2024, was revealed by the makers as a part of the “Kalki Cinematic Universe” and debuted on the platform on May 31, 2024.On June 10, 2024, the official trailer for the movie was unveiled.

Theatrical

Due to the COVID-19 pandemic and production work, the release date was pushed back from January 2024 to May 9, 2024, after originally being targeted for in 2022.A second postponement occurred, this time from May 9 to June 27, 2024, because to the Indian general election in 2024.

It is scheduled for release in Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, English, and Telugu and Hindi with dubbing.