Hyping Up: EP 2

 

Ladies and gentlemen, it is with great excitement and a little bit of sadness that I announce a new chapter in life. My friendship ended with Rajamouli, my new bestie is Nag Ashwin, Nagi.

Nagi’s passion project, initially called Project K (probably a working title), now called Kalki 2898 AD, is set to release on June 27th, 2024, around 50 years after the debut of the producer, Ashwini Dutt’s production house Vyjayanthi Movies. So, there’s exactly 2 months to go. I’ve been hyped about this movie ever since they announced it on 19th July 2020. I watched their announcement video of the inclusion of Deepika Padukone into the cast. At that time, I was getting back the Bahubali hype, so I was in a Prabhas zone. Naturally, I was excited. When I got to know that the director was Nag Ashwin, I knew it’d be really good. So I was completely hyped up from day one. Then the Amitabh Bachchan video dropped and the excitement increased.  For 3 years, as they kept posting small updates I started painting a picture of how it might turn out. I prayed that they would spend the huge budget on the movie instead of paying the actors. Then on July 21st, 2023, they put out the glimpse for the world to see what they were cooking, and it was beautiful. There were a couple of points which could be improved, but they still had time to work on them. Finally, almost a week ago, the Ashwatthama intro released. Obviously everyone went berserk. Now, y’all must be wondering why I’m so hyped up, let me tell you why. Nagi. Yup that’s it. I just love him. He’s a nerd and loves Star Wars and I fully believe that he can create something better than Star Wars, and it’ll be 100% Indian.

Now, I have a few theories about the movie. 

1. So now, we know that Prabhas is playing Bhairava (which I kinda knew even though it sounds like what anyone would say, I’m not kidding guys. Like I knew what he would be named). He’s probably like a mechanic (Salaar reference?) from the 2898 AD streets of Kasi. He will probably be recruited by the Rebellion (kinda like Star Wars) due to circumstances, and will be given a task. Deepika is also a part of the Rebellion but infiltrates the Empire’s army as a spy. With Deepika’s help, Prabhas and the rebellion get hold of an idol, the last remaining idol of a God in the world, which is locked with the Empire. Using that, somehow they summon the Kalki avatar. The powers of Kalki then enter Bhairava or something along those lines. The remaining story is a classic Rebels vs Empire saga, with Ashwatthama training Bhairava. 

1. Another one of the storylines I thought of was a plain ‘a hero is born’ trope. But I doubt Nagi will take that route with the insane amount of scope and depth our mythology has. 

There’s more ideas I had but they were all bits and pieces. I couldn’t build on them. If I do, I’ll write another post.

 

Some of them revolved around the kid who appears in the Ashwatthama glimpse. I still can’t figure out if it was a boy or a girl because well, it’s a kid. If it’s a girl it’s most probably Deepika. If it’s a boy it could be Prabhas but I don’t think so. It could also be a random kid for whom the Raiders are looking for and he’s ran and wandered in to Ashwatthama’s lair, which is a Shiva temple. Then a Raider finds the kid and enters. That’s when the shot of Big B opening his eyes lands. He saves the kid. And then the whole sequence of the kid trying to talk to Ashwatthama which is shown in the glimpse happens. That kid is either some chosen one kinda stuff whom the Rebellion comes looking for or the kid is a child of one of the Rebel members. And so Ashwatthama meets the Rebels and then maybe he gives them the idea of summoning Kalki. Well, that’s a theory in itself.

Anyone could come up with a bunch of theories, which is why this movie excites me so much. There’s so much scope for discussions. I hope Nagi teams up with Rana and Amar Chitra Katha and come up with some comics. They already sold a few merchandise items, and could sell many more. There are rumours of sequels, and they could be true. Other than the sequels though, there could be spinoffs, but I don’t see anyone directing it, nor anyone spending so much money to produce it. Maybe some Hollywood production house could buy some rights and do it? Maybe I’m thinking too much. But yes, the source material is so vast that there are many possibilities. 

That’s it for this post. I might think of new possibilities and write another one for Kalki. This is the most hyped up I’ve been about anything, followed closely by No Way Home. I have a great feeling about the movie. Bye bye. See you later. 

P.S: Happy 7th anniversary of Bahubali 2 in advance!