Kalki 2898 AD: Behind the Scenes of Indian Cinema’s Sprawling Sci-Fi Epic with The Embassy VFX
In the distant future - the year 2898 - the world is unrecognisable. Across swathes of a dystopian desert wasteland, only one city remains: The Complex. Above The Complex, Supreme Yaskin rules with an iron fist, calling the shots of a society in thrall to his leadership. In this bleak, inhospitable world, a figure emerges from folklore into reality. His name is Kalki, the tenth and final avatar of the Hindu deity, Vishnu.
That’s the setup for Kalki 2898, a sweeping and spectacular Sci-Fi movie from director Nag Ashwin which is, by some estimates, the most expensive ever produced in India. The epic scale of the film’s storyline - pulling on inspirations from Hindu mythology and scriptures in the context of a post-apocalyptic future - is matched by the ambition of its production.
Having initially been announced in early 2020, the film navigated Covid-related delays to take shape over the course of roughly three years. The highly-anticipated movie was finally released to the world on the 27th June (in IMAX as well as other formats), following one last short delay to avoid clashing with the Indian general election as well as a no-holds barred marketing campaign. Fittingly, the film is already being described as the first piece in what will become a Marvel-esque ‘Kalki Cinematic Universe’, the first of its kind in India.
Helping bring the film’s state-of-the-art VFX to life was the team at The Embassy, whose experience on Hollywood blockbusters like Captain America and The Hunger Games, as well as beloved Sci-Fi like District 9, was put to work on Kalki. That team includes visual effects supervisor Paul Copeland, and compositing supervisor Sami Oms. To find out more about this most unique of projects, LBB’s Adam Bennett caught up with Paul and Sami.
A Desert Dystopia
“We were looking after around 700 shots, and most of our work took place in what they’re calling the ‘Off Sector’”, explains Paul. “This is a huge desert wasteland, mostly framed by the ruins of an old space port which has collapsed and been taken back by the sand”.
Within that framing, a number of high-octane sequences play out in the movie. “There’s a massive chase scene, as well as an epic battle between two of the lead characters”, continues Paul. “Those scenes include everything you might expect from a blockbuster worthy of the name: explosions, vehicles, doubles, and all of the other things which go into these sorts of scenes”.
Part of the Embassy’s challenge was in capturing an authentic sense of movement, with much of the filming happening in front of a blue screen. As Paul recounts, that meant paying close attention to how the environment would react to “thrusters on vehicles, holograms, and weapons firing”.
“Something we had to pay a lot of attention to was continuity and narrative, because of how most of our 700 shots had to carry into the next one”, recalls Sami. “It was a massive undertaking, and I think for the size of team that we are, we totally killed it”.
“It’s always a challenge when you’re trying to bring a sense of intensity movement to a scene like that”, says Paul. “I think a huge part of what the team achieved was maintaining a cohesive sense of story in these scenes - it really flows”.
Digging deeper into the film’s setting, the team quickly established some neat ways to make the desert landscape pop. “Something we leaned into a lot was silhouettes”, says Paul. “Because so much of the scenery was in the far background, we found that shadows really helped the elements in the foreground to be visually striking”.
Paul describes the scenery in these scenes as “skeletal” - aptly, given that the debris resembles the broken bones of structures which once stood proudly. “We wanted to establish this sense of decay and decline - that this was a civilization standing at the end of something profound”, he says.
That desert environment is something which evokes plenty of classic Sci-Fi films: Tatooine in Star Wars, the featureless expanses in Mad Max, and more latterly the yawning sea of sand portrayed in Denis Villeneuve’s Dune adaptations. “Alongside the concept art, those were all reference points we used for Kalki”, notes Sami.
“I think the desert is a useful setting because it immediately tells that audience that this land is inhospitable and uncomfortable”, says Paul. “It alienates you, in a way that perhaps lush jungles with delicious-looking fruit on every tree might not”.
A Whole New (Cinematic) World
Kalki’s significance in the context of Indian cinema more broadly is something that the Embassy team were keen to understand. “We knew it was big right from the start”, says Paul, “but it wasn’t until later down the road that it really dawned on us just how significant a moment this film is”.
Everything about Kalki 2898 AD is big. Prabhas, one of India’s biggest stars, is the lead actor - and he’s joined by an ensemble cast of some of the country’s most acclaimed and recognised talent. Sci-Fi, too, is a genre which conjures up memories of huge Hollywood classics like Star Wars, Star Trek, and Alien. But Kalki is not only a very pure Sci-Fi film - it’s also profoundly Indian in the way that its story drips with the nation’s cultural and religious influences (in the same way that many Western Sci-Fi films do with Christianity).
“I’ve found myself watching a lot more Indian cinema since working on this film”, says Sami. “It’s interesting how some of the conventions - including those in Kalki - are different and how some are similar to the West. We worked on a few ‘speed-up, slow-down’ sequences which are fairly common in Indian cinema, for example”.
Above all else, Kalki 2898 is a spectacle. In 2022, RRR made huge waves across the world and introduced millions to the joy and emotions of Indian cinema. Now, Kalki aims to build on that in its own way - and lay the groundwork for a future cinematic universe.
Asked for his final thoughts on how audiences should approach the film, Paul keeps things disarmingly simple. “Have fun”, he tells LBB. “It’s a heck of a ride”.
