'We shot about 20 or 30 days, I'd say at best 20 per cent. The big stuff is remaining.'
"It's a coming together of mainly two things," Director Nag Ashwin tells Subhash K Jha, trying to explain how he made the spectacle called Kalki 2898 AD.
"One is Prabhas. After 10 years of Baahubali, the market has expanded. He has grown to the scale to which he is thrown right now. The second is my producers, who are as maverick as I am. These are the biggest reasons why this happened. now.
"The whole team worked really hard, and it took a long time. Our production designer is a very unique talent. Our cameraman is a unique talent."
Nag Ashwin says he had no time to get nervous or excited about the release date.
"We were rushing till the last minute to deliver the film to distributors," he says.
"The amount of VFX, you know, it was very tough! Also, there were multiple languages and formats like 3D and IMAX. Finally, it was set out in the world.
"We didn't have time to feel tense. We were still delivering and still thinking about, you know, whether this was a shot or, you know... You have multiple versions to look into individually. The IMAX Telugu version was something we had to deliver first, and it was the least finished of the lot. It had some unfinished VFX, unfinished music, sound, some missing dialogues. And we had to send it about five-six days before the rest. The most number of calls I got for the visual excellence version was from the IMAX Telugu version," he says.
Kalki brings back Amitabh Bachchan as a genuine superhero.
"For me, Bachchan sir was the first person I wanted on board, and the first person I approached. He surrendered to my vision," he says.
Ashwin Nag reveals he started pre-production for Kalki right after his last film Mahanati released in 2018.
"I decided to start this about four or five months after Mahanati. It was building up within me. It definitely came from my growing up influences like th Mahabharata. I would read abridged versions when I was growing up, but I read the proper one during this movie. I think in Telugu cinema, there are many of these Mahabharata adaptations. Growing up, I saw these black and white films with bow and arrow fights.
"I mixed that with (my) exposure to the Star Wars series. I'm definitely a huge fan. That was one of the first influences on Kalki.
"I love Mad Max but I would say this particular chase scene was written a while back. But it's also a setting. Like, as soon as you put a truck in a desert, it's going to look like Mad Max.
"I used to read a lot. But I haven't read much lately. I'd have comics inside my school books."
Now that Kalki has caught the attention of the entire nation, what's next?
"The next one is a while off because it's not really shot yet. We shot about 20 or 30 days, I'd say at best 20 per cent. The big stuff is remaining."
But before that, Nag Ashwin has another project: "I actually have a small commitment that I have finished for another producer, then I'll get back to this. It is a series in Hindi."
The success of Kalki is a huge relief for Nag Ashwin.
"It's definitely a big thing because we attempted something like this. It was so important that we don't fail because that would shut the door for so many people."
