Mumbai. Kalki 2898 AD, starring Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan, is close to touching the figure of Rs 1000 crore in terms of earnings globally. Its writer and director Nag Ashwin is very excited with the success of the film. Now all eyes are on the second part of this film, which will take time to come. Meanwhile, Nag Ashwin had a special conversation about the film...

I read more reactions on X than reviews. Of course, the critics say that the film is slow in some places, but in the same review, the film is praised at the end. Many people give reviews of the film after coming out of the theater, they too are praising the film after talking about some shortcomings.

How did you think of making Bujji?

Bujji was the fifth character in our film. First there was the process of writing him. After that the challenge was to make him. Bujji was a pure engineering journey. Such a vehicle has not been made till now. This three-wheeled vehicle weighs about six tonnes. Bujji is currently touring India. He went to Jaipur, Chandigarh, Delhi. He is getting a lot of love everywhere. Small children are getting a lot of inspiration from him. The most important idea behind making Bujji was to inspire children. We also took the help of an automobile company to make him, because we are not engineers

How much work went into creating the world of Kalki?

We are thinking about the future. Our future should not be like Hollywood is thinking about science fiction and future based films. Our science fiction future based film should have Indianness. So we had to think a lot about how to make it, how will our Kashi city be? What will its vehicles be like? There is an auto in our film but it is the auto of the future. It connects with all Indians, so that was the thinking.

How was the first day of shoot?

The first day of shooting started with Amit sir (Amitabh Bachchan). We started shooting on Guru Purnima so it was a very special start. I didn't know how to tell Amit sir how to act in this scene (smiles), but Amit sir is a very generous person. He wanted to hear from himself what I wanted to say about the character.

Is it difficult to bring your own originality amidst the influence of Hollywood films?

Certainly it should be a matter of pride for our generation and the younger generation that this is our film, because they have been watching Marvel Studios' films for the last ten-fifteen years. But all those stories are from Hollywood. We have a lot of beautiful stories in mythology and history, when we can make them in the right way and with the same technical value, then definitely our younger generation will like it.

Was it easy to convince Prabhas for a two-part film?

Maybe it is Prabhas' luck or something else, whatever stories he chooses are so big that they have to be made in two parts, but yes, initially there was a plan to make Kalki in one part, but the story is so big that it had to be made in two parts. We first told the story to Prabhas once or twice, after which he got completely attached to the film.

Kalki became a truly pan-India film because you cast actors and filmmakers from different industries in brief roles?

This film is more of a tribute to SS Rajamouli Sir and Ram Gopal Varma than a cameo, because in a way both of them changed the Indian cinema industry. I have worked with Salman Dulquer earlier. Now people are saying that the word Pan India will slowly disappear. In the South, people watch Shah Rukh Khan's films a lot. In the North, people watch Rajini Sir's films. When we become an industry, then we can compete with Hollywood or Marvel films. It will be better if we call our cinema Indian cinema.