Screening Kalki 2898 AD at the Busan International Film Festival (BIFF) this year, producers Swapna Dutt and Priyanka Dutt told Deadline that one of their goals is to secure distribution for the film in China and Korea.
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Raking in $140M at box offices globally so far, sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 AD is the highest-grossing Indian film of 2024. With a reported budget around 600 crore rupees ($72M), the film is also estimated to be one of the most expensive Indian movies ever made. The film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Disha Patani.
Kalki 2898 AD sequel and other films in production
A second instalment is on the way and the producers, who are also sisters, said that around 35 to 40 percent of the shoot for the sequel have been completed. They intend to pick up production again in the second quarter of 2025 and complete the film by the end of the year — and hope to continue expanding the Kalki Cinematic Universe with many more titles.
“The first part has done great in India, North America and UK, among others,” Swapna said. “The film has the potential to travel around the world and we want the first part to travel a lot more before releasing the second part.”
Swapna added: “Is Kalki inspired by Marvel? I wouldn’t say inspired but it definitely has given us so much to learn. I think it’s a great achievement to have put on a visual experience that others have compared to Marvel.”
Kalki 2898 AD had its first screening at the festival’s largest theater — the 4,000-seater BIFF Theater at the Busan Cinema Center.
Kalki 2898 AD is also the third highest-grossing Telugu film of all time, just behind S. S. Rajamouli’s RRR .
“We’ve started crossing all kinds of borders and becoming one Indian cinema, with Telugu now being heard as one of the most important languages in Indian cinema,” Swapna said.
Both Swapna and Priyanka are also working on Champion , a love story set in 1955, directed by Pradeep Advaitham, with the title already in production. They are also in pre-production for Aakasam Lo Oka Tara , directed by Pavan Sadineni.
The unrivaled complexity and scale of Kalki 2898 AD have pushed the battle-hardened and seasoned sisters to another level of filmmaking. “After Kalki , everything seems to be very easy,” Swapna said. “The people who worked on Kalki and are now working on these other films say the same. For Kalki , we had to manage 1000 things a day, while for these two films, it’s like 20 to 30 things.”
A family business
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Kalki 2898 AD has been a family business for Swapna and Priyanka. The film was made under the production company Vyjayanthi Movies, which was set up by their father, Chalasani Aswani Dutt, who also holds producer credits on the film. Kalki 2898 AD is directed by Nag Ashwin, who is Priyanka’s husband.
“This family relationship makes it both difficult as well as easy. On the good side of things, this gives me a lot of strength, because making cinema is itself a risky venture, especially making a film of this scale,” Swapna said.
Priyanka added: “We can depend on each other, whether it’s something negative or positive, we know that we’re there for each other to talk, figure it out and solve things together.”
Both sisters said that they can trace the seed for Kalki 2898 AD back to a conversation that they had together with Ashwin at their father’s home around mid-2019, although they acknowledge that Ashwin had the idea for the film from as far back as 2014.
“My dad was the one who taught us how to dream in the language of cinema,” Swapna said. “He always wanted to make larger films with bigger skills, like social fantasies, so that’s the kind of cinema we grew up with.”
Priyanka said: “My dad used to come home and there were always these discussions about successful films, or how a certain film was shot, or how he made a certain song or script.”
However, Swapna said that she had considered other ventures outside of filmmaking before committing to the craft. She had a stint in Ohio while pursuing a master’s degree there and entertained alternative career paths. Priyanka also had a stint in Los Angeles while pursuing her undergraduate degree at UCLA.
Besides the Telugu films that they watched while growing up, both sisters said that Hollywood films like Jurassic Park also inspired them.
They also said that cinema has now entered a different age, where people are more open to watching films in other languages and from different parts of the world.
“Back in the day, we could not experiment or raise the bar of cinema beyond a point, because we had certain limitations,” Swapna said. “Now, the world is watching Telugu cinema, and so all we have to do is a crack a good story and have good actors on board. If we do that, the sky is the limit.”
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