Time-travel to the future

With Kalki 2898 AD trailer depicting two contrasting futuristic worlds, sources say director Ashwin spent over three years and Rs 200 crore on CGI to create them

Bleak and barren, sure, but it’s rich in scale and imagination. If the trailer of Kalki 2898 AD is anything to go by, director Nag Ashwin has built an ingenious on-screen world for his dystopian sci-fi film starring Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas and Deepika Padukone. Sources reveal that it took the director more than three years to create this universe with special effects. And the cost? According to sources, a whopping Rs 200 crore for the CGI itself!

Kalki 2898 AD may mark Ashwin’s first brush with a sci-fi movie, but the National Award winner knew that the genre would have takers in the Indian audience. “Nag observed that Hollywood sci-fi action movie franchises like Mad Max and Dune fared incredibly well at the Indian box office. With Kalki, he wanted to give the audience an experience on a par with Hollywood fantasy or sci-fi films. So, he roped in several visual effects companies, including  DNEG, and Famous Studios to build the story’s two distinct worlds—the desert city of Kashi, and the gigantic structure, known as the Complex, which is marked by lush gardens and flowing waterfalls. When the project rolled in July 2021, the CGI work began simultaneously, and cost approximately Rs 200 crore,” says a source.

At the trailer launch, the director also revealed that it took two years to build Bujji, an AI-powered car that Prabhas’ character Bhairava rides in the movie. Bachchan’s sagely look in the June 27 release has also caught fans’ attention. The source adds, “Bachchan sir’s make-up took three hours every day.”

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