“Usually during making films, I don’t think of what awards it will get but for Kalki, I always felt that it should get in production design.
After Kalki 2898 AD (2024) won two National Awards, including Best Popular Film Providing Wholesome Entertainment and Best Production Design, director Nag Ashwin calls the wins “special”. Speaking about the honour, Ashwin says awards were not on his mind while making the film, but he always believed its production design deserved praise. We were doing some extremely impossible things and I’m very happy that it got that recognition,” says the filmmaker.
The recognition marks his second National Award after he was previously honoured for Mahanati.
The film featured an ensemble cast of Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Kamal Haasan, among others.
Ashwin credits the film’s “great actors” for pushing him to be sharper and ensuring that the story and scenes were “up to the mark”. “Rather than overpower the story, I feel it helped me be sharper on my feet and make sure that the story or the scenes really were up to the mark, to justify the great actors who were playing these roles,” he says.
And also the Mahabharata sequences,” shares the 40-year-old. With the film’s box-office success followed by National Award recognition, Ashwin says the focus for its sequel, Kalki 2898 AD – Part 2, will remain on the story rather than expectations. Because the action had proper story beats and had to keep improving, “It was really a complicated sequence. Because they need to make their next film or are trying to write something according to the trend, “I feel the stories that directors want to tell… from inside… not.
Recalling the film’s most challenging sequences, Ashwin points to the climax featuring Ashwatthama (Amitabh) battling Bhairava (Prabhas) in Bujji, the three-wheeled AI car, as well as the Mahabharata portions. “After the box office success and now the award recognition, what we will strive to do is to still be honest to the story. For Ashwin, that honesty begins with the reason a filmmaker chooses to tell a story in the first place. The want to make something should be blind and relentless. I feel only those work, at any point of time,” he concludes.
And make a film that can stand the test of time,” he says.
