Nitish Bharadwaj, who became a household name after playing Lord Krishna in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, is the latest celebrity to join the Kalki 2898 AD fan club. Impressed by Nag Ashwin’s vision, Nitish Bharadwaj shared his thoughts about the film in an interview with News 18. “(Nag Ashwin has) made clever use of Mahabharat characters and the futuristic birth of Mahavishnu’s last avatar Kalki. Hindi film producers must learn from the South as they are so deeply rooted in our scriptures and epics that even their inspirational versions seem correct. No doubt, Kalki seems to have definite visual inspiration from Mad Max movies. Yet, it seemed different because eventually, the sets and production design were less important to me than the foreground story. Ashwin merged the 2 extremely well,” Nitish Bharadwaj told the news portal.
When asked if he was reminded of his shooting days from the sets of Mahabharat while watching the film, Nitish Bharadwaj told News 18, “Yes because the epic Mahabharat is extremely close to my heart. And no because Ashwin created a different world before me.” The veteran actor also expressed his wish to feature as Lord Krishna in the sequel. He jokingly said, “In the sequel, Ashwin need not hide Krishna’s face, I am available (laughs).” For the unversed, Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD intertwines several stories from Mahabharat with a dystopian future. Prabhas and Amitabh Bachchan’s characters are directly inspired from Mahabharat.
In his review for NDTV, film critic Saibal Chatterjee gave the film 2.5 stars out of 5 and he wrote, “On the acting front, Prabhas leads the way and not only because the film revolves around him. His strong presence serves as a counterpoint to Amitabh Bachchan’s towering Ashwatthama – the deathless warrior is an eight-footer. The latter’s voice is, as always, an integral part of the character. Deepika Padukone, playing one of the central figures, is splendid as the pregnant woman on the run.”
Headlined by a stellar cast, Kalki 2898 AD has minted ₹ 466 crore since its release on June 27. Kalki 2898 AD features Prabhas as Bhairava, Deepika Padukone as Sumati, Disha Patani as Roxie, Amitabh Bachchan as Ashwathama and Kamal Haasan as Supreme Yaskin The movie also includes cameo appearances by Mrunal Thakur, Ram Gopal Varma, SS Rajamouli, Vijay Deverakonda and Dulquer Salmaan. Kalki 2898 AD released in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam.
