Nag Ashwin On Netizens Comparing Kalki 2898 AD To Dune: 'Whenever There’s Sand, It’ll Look Like That'

Nag Ashwin’s upcoming sci-fi film, Kalki 2898 AD, with Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan, is highly anticipated this year. However, its promotional material has faced criticism and been compared to Denis Villeneuve’s Dune, featuring Tom Holland and Zendaya. Nag discussed these concerns at the VFX Summit in Hyderabad.

During the event, a student asked Nag why his film resembled Dune and if they had any similarities. The student said, “Project K (the film’s working title) looks a lot like the Hollywood movie Dune when it comes to the theme and the art work.” To this, Nag Ashwin replied, “It’s because of the sand. They (another student) noticed the film has sand in it, no? Basically, whenever there’s sand, it’ll look like Dune.”

A recent teaser for Kalki 2898 AD with Amitabh Bachchan as Ashwatthama amazed fans. They loved seeing the actor’s de-aging transformation. The teaser included languages like Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, and English. It showed Bachchan praying in a cave to a Shiva linga, with calming music in the background. A child’s voice asks, “Can you not die? Are you divine? Who are you?”

Sharing his thoughts on X (formerly Twitter) earlier last week, Amitabh Bachchan had said, “It’s been an experience for me like no other. The mind to think such a product, the execution, the exposure to modern technology and above all the company of colleagues with stratospheric Super star presence.”

Earlier, Nag spoke about the film’s inspiration at the Synapse 2024 event in Gurgaon. He said, “The film starts with Mahabharat and ends in 2898 AD. It spans 6000 years in time. We tried to create worlds, imagining what they would be like while still keeping it Indian and not making it look like Blade Runner.”

Although the makers are yet to shed more light on Deepika’s role in the film, it is rumoured that Deepika is playing Prabhas’ wife in the film. The actress is likely to play the role of Padma. As per the Vedas, Padma is the wife of Lord Kalki. However, Nag Ashwin has not addressed the speculations.