Kalki 2898 AD is a 2024 Indian Telugu-language epic mythological science fiction film written and directed by Nag Ashwin. Produced by Vyjayanthi Movies, it features an ensemble cast including Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Shobana and Disha Patani. Inspired by Hindu scriptures, the film serves as the first installment in the planned Kalki Cinematic Universe. Set in a dystopian future in the year 2898 AD in the city of Kashi, the story follows a group on a mission to protect lab subject SUM-80's unborn child, believed to be Kalki, the final incarnation of Vishnu.
The film was officially announced in February 2020 and had the working title of Project K. Principal photography commenced a year later in July 2021 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It was shot sporadically over the next three years extensively in Ramoji Film City and wrapped by late-May 2024. The official title was revealed in July 2023. The film features music by Santhosh Narayanan, cinematography by Djordje Stojiljkovic, and editing by Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao.
Kalki 2898 AD was initially scheduled for release on 9 May 2024, but was postponed due to unfinished post-production work. It was released worldwide on 27 June 2024 in standard, IMAX, and 3D formats with mixed reviews praising Ashwin's direction, screenplay, background score, visual effects, concept, penultimate scenes and Bachchan's performance. The film was also criticised for its slow and uneven first half, lengthy runtime, disjointed subplots, weak dialogue and underdeveloped characters. Its comedy, particularly Bhairava's jokes, was also considered ineffective, while some critics found its use of familiar science-fiction elements lacking in originality. With a production budget, it is the most expensive Indian film ever made. The film grossed an estimated globally and has set multiple box office records for an Indian and Telugu film, becoming the second highest-grossing Indian film of 2024, the fourth highest-grossing Telugu film, and the tenth highest-grossing Indian film of all time. The film won four Telangana Gaddar Film Awards, including Best Film, and four South Indian International Movie Awards including Best Film – Telugu. At the 72nd National Film Awards 2024, it won 2 awards including Best Production Design and Best Popular Feature Film.
Plot In the aftermath of the Kurukshetra War, Ashwatthama unleashes the Brahmastra to kill the unborn child of Uttarā and extinguish the Pandava lineage. As punishment, Krishna curses him with painful immortality and eternal suffering, condemning him to wander the Earth for six millennia until he can redeem himself by protecting the mother of Kalki, the prophesied final avatar of Vishnu.
Six thousand years later, in 2898 AD, Earth has become a desolate post-apocalyptic wasteland, with the ancient city of Kashi serving as humanity's last bastion. Kashi is ruled autocratically by Supreme Yaskin, a totalitarian God king who lives in the "Complex", a technologically advanced inverted pyramid floating above the city and accessible only to the wealthy. Impoverished, fertile women from the outskirts are abducted for Project K, a secret laboratory experiment that extracts a life-extending serum from artificial pregnancies to grant Yaskin immortality. No subject has survived the lethal extraction process beyond 150 days.
SUM-80, a captive subject, reaches the 150-day milestone and escapes the compound with help from rebels from Shambhala, a hidden mountain sanctuary whose refugees believe in the Kalki prophecy. During their journey to Shambhala, a rebel named Kyra renames her Sumathi. Their convoy is then ambushed by Yaskin's militarised forces, the Raiders, and bounty hunters, including Bhairava, a cynical mercenary seeking enough bounty points to enter the Complex. He is aided by his sentient AI vehicle, BU-JZ-1, or Bujji. Kyra sacrifices herself to help the group escape, allowing Ashwatthama, who senses Kalki's divine presence within Sumathi, to defeat the attackers and take custody of her.
The group reaches Shambhala, where nature begins to flourish in Sumathi's presence. Ashwatthama urges her to accept her role as the avatar's mother. He also reveals to his companion Raia, a young girl who disguised herself as a boy to avoid abduction by the Raiders, his ancient connection to the legendary warrior Karna through the mystical Vijaya Dhanush. Meanwhile, Bhairava bargains with Commander Manas, Yaskin's chief enforcer, to capture Sumathi in exchange for entry into the Complex. After manipulating the young Shambhalan Luke, Bhairava infiltrates the sanctuary disguised as Ashwatthama and attempts to abduct Sumathi, but the real Ashwatthama confronts him.
Using the distraction, Manas and the Raiders invade Shambhala, killing resistance leader Mariam and overpowering a weakened Ashwatthama. Amid the chaos, Bhairava touches the Vijaya Dhanush when a sacred leaf falls upon it, triggering a temporary cosmic awakening and revealing him as Karna's reincarnation. Empowered with divine combat abilities and immense strength, Bhairava destroys the Raider forces and kills Manas to protect Sumathi. He then returns to normal, unaware of his true identity.
In a mid-credits sequence, Supreme Yaskin consumes a harvested drop of Sumathi's fetal serum. It grants him immense physical power, a youthful body and multiple supernatural arms. He effortlessly lifts the Gandiva, the legendary bow of Arjuna, and vows to lead his army in reshaping the world, heralding a dark new era.
Cast Adapted from the opening and closing credits:
Cameo appearances
Production
Development
After the success of Mahanati in 2019, Nag Ashwin stated that he had been working on an original story, for which he had spent a long time on. He also stated that the production would begin soon. The project would be funded by C. Aswani Dutt's Vyjayanthi Movies, which also funded Mahanati. The company announced on 7 August 2019 that the production would begin in September and posted a casting call for various artist positions. On 26 February 2020, coinciding the occasion of the 50th year since the establishment of Dutt's house, Prabhas was announced to be the lead actor. Tentatively titled Prabhas 21 (as it is intended to be the actor's 21st film in the lead role), the production would begin after the actor completes filming for Radhe Shyam (2022). The film was made on a production budget of ₹600 crore that included star remuneration of ₹80 crore to Prabhas, and ₹20 crore each to Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Deepika Padukone.
The lead actor, however, reportedly decided to take the revenue sharing model, receiving ₹80 crore as advance, and a chunk of the profits would be given to him as remuneration. In February 2021, it was reported that the filming would begin in March; however, Ashwin during the promotions for his short film in Pitta Kathalu (2021) stated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic and Prabhas' prior commitments, the filming would commence at the latter half of the year. The film's official title, Kalki 2898 AD, was announced on 21 July 2023. It is a reference to Kalki, an avatar of Hindu deity Vishnu in the Hindu eschatology, according to the Bhagavata Purana, and 3102 BC – traditionally thought to be the beginning of Kali Yuga after the Kurukshetra War, from the death of Krishna (the film being set 6,000 years into the Kali Yuga, the era of the asura/demon Kali).
Pre-production Ashwin co-wrote the film's script along with Rutham Samar, Sai Madhav Burra and B. S. Sarawagna Kumar, in his second consecutive film with Samar and Burra after Mahanati. A muhurat pooja ceremony was held on 24 July 2021 at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad with the presence of the film's cast and crew. The working title was revealed to have been changed to Project K the same day. Ashwin stated that the film needed high-end technology and futuristic vehicles to be developed for the film. Although they can be recreated using computer-generated imagery (CGI), the director opted to build these vehicles from scratch.
In March 2022, Ashwin requested businessman Anand Mahindra to provide technical support to build such type of vehicle. A few days later, Mahindra responded that their company Mahindra & Mahindra would assist the production team from their Mahindra Research Valley campus in Chennai. In July 2021, the makers erected a futuristic set at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad where a significant portion of filming is expected to take place. A. R. Rahman had been initially approached, in August 2020, to compose music for the film but the talks fell out.
Ashwin retained most of his technicians, including composer Mickey J. Meyer, editor Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, production designer Nithin Zihani Choudhary, cinematographer Dani Sanchez-Lopez, costume designers Thota Vijay Bhaskar, Shaleena Nathani and Sahithi Patha. However, Serbian cinematographer, Djordje Stojiljkovic, replaced Dani Sanchez-Lopez as the official cinematographer of the film. In February 2023, Santhosh Narayanan replaced Meyer as the composer. Andreas Nguyen was chosen as the stunt choreographer of the film. Singeetam Srinivasa Rao joined as a mentor, contributing elements of his planned script on Lord Krishna and providing creative inputs to the project.
Casting
Prabhas would sport long hair and beard, with reporters reminiscing his look in the film with Baahubali. Deepika Padukone was cast as the female lead, in her Telugu film debut despite having starred in the unreleased Love 4 Ever. Amitabh Bachchan was confirmed to play an important role, in his Telugu film debut as he had previously only made cameo appearances in Manam (2014) and Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2019). Ashwin stated that his role was "so important that his character's name [Ashwatthama] was the working title of an early draft". Kamal Haasan also joined the film in an important role, while Disha Patani was also cast in an important role. The film marks their return to Telugu cinema after Subha Sankalpam (1995) and Loafer (2015), respectively.
Rajendra Prasad, Shobhana, Saswata Chatterjee, Brahmanandam, and Pasupathy were cast in important roles. Anna Ben made her Telugu debut with this film. Keerthy Suresh and Arjun Das appeared in voice roles respectively; former as Bujji and latter as Lord Krishna. Initially, Keerthy Suresh was offered another undisclosed role, but she rejected it and later accepted the voice-role. Harshith Malgireddy, Kavya Ramachandran, Ayaz Pasha, Anil George, Keya Nair, Vinay Kumar, Venkata Ramana, Hamish Boyd and Sanghawa Shin were present during the film's preliminary shooting schedule. Dulquer Salmaan, Vijay Deverakonda, Mrunal Thakur, S. S. Rajamouli, Ram Gopal Varma and K. V. Anudeep briefly had respective cameo appearances.
Filming
Principal photography began with the first schedule on 24 July 2021, on the occasion of Guru Purnima, at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad featuring Bachchan. Prabhas and Padukone joined the production in December 2021 and scenes featuring both the actors and Bachchan were shot. The second schedule of the shoot took place in February 2022. Instead of shooting the entire film in a single stretch, the team divided its 80–90 days of shoot into 7–8 days every month. This actually allowed the production team to take time and prepare the gadgets and props to be used in the film. Therefore, the production of the film was expected to take longer than usual. DIY Arri Alexa 65 camera was used to shoot the film, thus making it the first Indian film to use this technology.