Nag Ashwin, director of Kalki 2898 AD responds to “slow first half”: Though this has been a uniform reaction…

With the reaction to Kalki 2898 AD, the biggest film of Nag Ashwin’s career, he feels relieved. Over ₹500 crore in the first week at the box office it has earned in. In response, he declares, “A movie like this is beyond us.” In the sense, the goal was more general; there was more at risk than only us. Many producers were waiting for the outcome of this science fiction movie. Should it fail, additional years would have passed without doors opening.

For his directorial, the 38-year-old managed to assemble a dream ensemble of Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Kamal Hassan, and Deepika Padukone. Recalling how the production started during the epidemic and it was “extremely tough to get the financing” in place for the picture, he says, ” luckily, we had a little bit of a cushion there. Our country boasts the biggest celebrity cast of all. Furthermore, there was goodwill on that front as the past movies we (the producers) had produced together worked and were appreciated.

One frequent criticism from the viewers has been that the initial half of the sci-fi mythological play, which mostly borrows from Mahabharata, slows down. Ashwin comprehends that the perception of the first half being slow is widely accepted as a typical response. I will accept that in a three-hour movie if people enjoyed two hours and 54 minutes.

Ask Mahesh Babu who performs Lord Krishna in the movie; he responds, “This is how Krishna will be in the film. There are rumors that he does. We should have him in the shadow, hence one of the first things I was quite convinced was there should not be any form. You humanise him in a manner once you do it. We were not interested in humanising him.