Mahabharat's Nitish Bharadwaj Praises Kalki 2898 AD, Has Brilliant Suggestion For Sequel | Exclusive

Mahabharat star Nitish Bharadwaj gave his seal of approval to Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD. The actor, who set the bar high with his performance of Lord Krishna in BR Chopra’s Mahabharat, opened up about the Prabhas and Deepika Padukone headlined film in an exclusive conversation with News18 Showsha. Bharadwaj said he is impressed with Ashwin’s vision and even jokingly offered to reprise his role as Lord Krishna in the sequel.

“(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,” Bharadwaj told us.

For the unversed, Kalki 2898 AD intertwines several stories from Mahabharat with the dystopian future. Nag Ashwin, with the help of Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, and Kamal Haasan, explores a fictional future in Kalki – the 10th avatar of Lord Vishnu. The characters in the film, especially those of Prabhas and Amitabh, are directly inspired by Mahabharat.

In fact, Amitabh plays the role of the immortal Ashwatthama who is out to protect the unborn child that Deepika’s Sumathi is carrying. However, the film’s biggest twist comes in the form of Prabhas. Warning: Spoiler ahead: the climax revealed that Prabhas might be a reincarnation of Karna. While it surprised many, Bharadwaj admitted he foresaw the twist when the scene before the interval played out.

“The strategic use of Krishna’s chariot pushed back was enough to give me a hint that Prabhas was the Karn reborn, as I understood,” he said. Ask him if watching Kalki 2898 AD brought back memories of working in Mahabharat, Bharadwaj confessed, “Yes and no.” He explained, “Yes because the epic Mahabharat is extremely close to my heart. And no because Ashwin created a different world before me.”

Following the release of Kalki 2898 AD and the cliffhanger ending, Nag Ashwin has opened a floodgate of theories. With some interesting theories making the rounds online, Bharadwaj also shared his prediction for the sequel. “Prabhas aka Karn will die in the ambition of being accepted by the villain despite Ashwatthama and Krishna showing him the path to redemption,” he predicted.

Ask him if he has a special message for Nag Ashwin, Bharadwaj said, “Bravo.” He joked, “In the sequel, Ashwin need not hide Krishna’s face, I am available (laughs).”