Nag Ashwin reveals not Harry Potter, but these 2 Hollywood movies inspired Kalki 2898 AD

Nag Ashwin's dystopian sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 AD has been getting a lot of praise for its immersive and imaginative worldbuilding. So much so that many compared it to the Harry Potter franchise. In an interview with Zoom, Nag clarified that while Harry Potter wasn't an inspiration, two other Hollywood movies were. (Also Read – Kalki 2898 AD box office collection day 11: Film enters ₹500 crore club)

What Nag said

When Nag was asked if Marvel's Iron Man franchise was an inspiration too, Nag said, “We grew up watching Marvel films. I would say Guardians of the Galaxy was more of an influence than Iron Man. Definitely, Star Wars is a huge influence. I love Star Wars, so that is subconsciously a part of my aesthetic.” He also revealed that Harshith Reddy's character Luke was taken from popular Star Wars character, Luke Skywalker.

However, he denied that Harry Potter was an inspiration, particularly for Kamal Haasan's look as Supreme Yaskin, allegedly modelled on the Hollywood franchise's chief antagonist, Lord Voldermort. “Our references were these old Tibetan monks, who are supposed to be 120-130 years old. Sir (Kamal Haasan) was always mentioning the portrait of Dorian Grey (from Oscar Wilde's 1890 philosophical novel The Picture of Dorian Grey). That was sir's inspiration. We didn't have many movie references for that ancient look,” Nag added. He mentioned that perhaps the only Harry Potter reference was Vinay Kumar's character Sirius, taken from popular Harry Potter character Sirius Black (played by Gary Oldman in the movies).

About Kalki 2898 AD

Kalki 2898 AD has cruised past the ₹800 crore-mark in its worldwide box office earnings and ₹500 crore domestically so far. Touted as the most expensive film to be produced in India at a reported budget of ₹600 crore, the mythological and sci-fi action drama released globally on June 27 in six languages. The film, previously titled Project K, was released worldwide in Telugu, Tamil, Malayalam, Kannada, Hindi and English.

Produced by Vyjayanthi Movies, Kalki 2898 AD stars Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Deepika Padukone, Prabhas, Saswata Chatterjee, Shobhana, and Anna Ben among others.