Nag Ashwin Breaks Down The Cast, Direction, And Behind-The-Scenes Of Kalki 2898 AD | Prabhas

Hi, I'm Nag Ashwin, director of Kalki 2898 AD. Today, I'm going to talk about my favourite scenes from the movie. Prabhas' intro scene was a lot of fun. Because, if you think of an intro scene for Prabhas' image, it will be very heavily action and a build-up and elevation in that zone. But, keeping that in mind, I wanted to also have fun. Somebody who is literally still in the middle of his sleep, I'll sleep for another 5 minutes, who will fight for 5,000? It's not worth it. I just wanted to keep it lite and fun and... Somewhat relatable And obviously fan service is important Because of the huge phenomenon that Prabhas is There's a small bit in the intro sequence which I thought was cool, when Luke is being scanned, you'll see a hologram on screen. "Possible Rebel - One Star bounty" Before Bhairava comes out, if you shoot the car, the hologram will start flickering. So, when Bhairava lands, that possible rebel disappears and a second of the Rebel Star appears. That was a very cool way to elevate and do fan service but also not go out of the story It took a lot of days for the look of Supreme Yaskin to come out correctly. We started with the first concept art. And from the script, we understood more and more about Yaskin and how he needed to look, how he needed to be. I think it was just something that came together once Kamal sir came on board and in the discussions with him, also trying to understand that somebody like Yaskin who can create almost one whole new world will need to be almost opposite of that. The complex is so glamorous, huge, magnanimous and over the top. But, Yaskin, the one who created it, the creator as such will be the most simple, will be the most bare bones person. From that zone, we sort of tried to understand how an ancient person who was just being put together by, who was being kept alive by technology would look. Actually, the look came more from the writing. I think Deepika's sequence and the entire interval sequence I think is one of my favorite. The inspiration for it is directly from Sri Krishna's story from Dwapar Yuga where when Sri Krishna was taking Vasudev, the whole water, the flooded river parts for him. So, I thought that the water element gave way for the incarnation. I just thought how will it be if this time, for the incarnation of this era, how will a fire element give way? This scene came from that thought process. And being intercut with the stories of Ashwathama and Bhairava just elevated that scene even more, I feel. I think every time Bachchan sir and Prabhas came together or Bhairava and Ashwathama came together there was a very interesting story in the fight. It wasn't just a fight. It was like how one person will answer the other person with either using strength or with using their brain or with using a trick. The fight choreography also became that much more difficult because it was not just a simple sort of hand-to-hand combat or fight. It needed sort of a thought process and a sort of one level to next level sort of thing. And then, from the first encounter to the second encounter when the sequence went on it had to go even higher. And the stakes were even higher because now it was close to the climax and how does it look different from the previous one and how does it look bigger than the previous one. So, I think there were so many things that added to it, whether it was fight choreography, whether it was VFX whether it was the idea itself of things like the Bujji bot things like the Bujji bot having a flamethrower. The small things, but it just added a lot to make the fights look different. I was definitely star-struck by both of them. I think both of them are legends in the film industry living legends and I think more than starstruck, I was always worried sometimes to explain why I want another take or multiple takes for certain things because it will be like they've already done it and they're probably really good at it and that's why I watched a take a couple of times to be really sure that I really need another one. But the kind of actors or the kind of professionals they are, they'll give you another take because they are like bored of what they have done they don't want to be comfortable with what they've done, they want me to try to give something new to them. So, they were actually more hungry to learn I would say, even at this stage. So, I don't know, I think it was just a great experience, yeah. I think cameos, because they're known actors but those roles needed good actors anyway. It turns out that we have a good relationship and we worked with all of these three people who are really good actors and I think, if you see Dulquer and Mrunal or Vijay Deverakonda, they fit into those characters well, it's just because when you have access to a good actor it just makes your life easier. It was actually probably for them, for the director directing was a very new situation, because especially legends like RGV sir and Rajamouli sir because directors are always like directors you'll always be thinking about the angle, cut point how is the lighting, how are they blocking I think actually both of them are really good actors, both of them Ramagopal Varma sir and Rajamouli sir are such good actors that whatever I wrote they could bring on stage that emotion or on screen I think is great they gave a full energy to that role so many people were very gracious obviously they liked it a lot they brought a good standard to the industry I think the most special compliment for me is A filmaker who called and said like “we don’t know what to do next, we’re confused” “What should I do now?” “I don't know what to do next” I was like “I don’t know what to answer to that but thank you sir!” There are so many things, For example there's an interval sequence Ashwathama coming out of the cave I'm Dronacharya's son my name is Ashwathama immediately after that do you know who I am? Bhairava points me in the film that's right next to each other but in the shooting Ashwathama shot the first schedule and Bhairava shot the last schedule there's a gap of 2 years when I wrote the first part of the title was also Ashwathama it was either Ashwathama 2898 or part 1 Ashwathama because I felt that story started with him and he was such an important part of that story so working title was almost that Kalki 2898 AD was a long beautiful journey for all of us and it's been even more great to see it being received with so much love across the world it's available on prime video now for all of you, please enjoy it with your friends and family