In an exclusive interview with ETimes, Paul Copeland – VFX Supervisor and Sami Oms – Compositing Supervisor, share their experience of working with Nag Ashwin on Kalki 2898 AD.
Talking about this project Paul said, “We were responsible for around 700 shots in Kalki 2898 AD. Most of our work on the film takes place in a desert wasteland that we were tasked with realizing in CG. The bulk of our work involved creating futuristic vehicles involved in a high speed desert chase and an epic battle between the main characters. In order to complete these shots, we employed a wide range of visual effects techniques including creating environments, vehicles, weapons and destruction, explosions, digital stunt doubles, holograms, you name it and you did it!”
Talking about what got the team inspired for a project like Kalki 2898 AD, Sami Oms said, “Looking at all the original concept art got me really excited to work on this project; like many of us in the industry I’m a huge fan of sci-fi, and sci-fi with Indian mythology is a brand new thing that I had never seen before.”
Kalki has a very strong mythological backstory, as the film goes back to the time of Mahabharat as Amitabh Bachchan plays Ashwathama in the film. Sharing about his conversation with the maverick director Nag Ashwin and the mythology in the film, Paul said, “We had some great calls with the director Nag Ashwin, where we went through the artwork they had been creating, and discussed the overall look he was going for. We didn’t dive into the mythology aspect of it too much, but he explained some of the characters’ backstory to help us understand their motivation and what they were going to be doing in our sequence.”
On the other hand, Sami added, “I wasn’t very familiar with a lot of it, but it was interesting to learn more about it throughout the process of working on the movie. I love learning about mythology from different cultures, and can’t wait to see how this all translates into the big screen.”
Both Paul and Sami feel that Kalki will have a groundbreaking effect. Talking about it Paul said, “I’m a big fan of science fiction so it’s exciting to be involved in such a groundbreaking film in a genre that may be a little under represented in India. Hopefully Kalki will leave audiences hungry for more.” On the other hand, Sami said, “While working on the movie, we definitely got a feel that this will have a massive impact on Indian cinema. It’s a very ambitious project, with tons of interesting ideas, and a big sci-fi theme which as far as I’m aware hasn’t been done much in Indian movies. It was really cool to be a part of this!”
