Nitin Zihani Chowdhary met director Nag Ashwin in late 2019. By then, for his production design Tumbbad (2018) brought him recognition and praise. An alumnus of the College of Art, New Delhi, Nitin had worked on Tumbbad for six years. On learning this, Nag Ashwin happily remarked that he would likely be tied with it Kalki 2898 AD for the next four years. “I was the first person to join the technical team, because developing the design would take time,” Nithin said in an interview. Hindu,
Nithin was drawn to the story that brought together the Kurukshetra war and futuristic science fiction. “I knew it would give me a big space to play with design,” he says about the film, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Kamal Haasan. The film has grossed over Rs 900 crore worldwide.
A BFA (Bachelor of Fine Arts) graduate with a keen interest in painting, illustration and sculpture, Nithin also learnt 2D and 3D animation. “My parents were worried that I was not focusing on one aspect of art.” All his skills could be put to use when he created storyboards for advertisements and then entered cinema. Kalki 2898 ADHe also consulted with the 3D and visual effects teams.
Nitin designed posters for director Anand Gandhi’s film The Ship of Theseus, pave the way for Tumbbad. Atrangi Re Followed.”Atrangi Re It gave me a taste of mainstream Hindi cinema and it was a lovely experience.”
When Nitin started working KalkiThe script was still evolving. Nithin’s team worked with concept artists and art directors on the city of Kashi, the complex, Shambala, and Kurukshetra, developing the design language.
At that time, Nithin had asked Nag Ashwin why he wanted to make such a unique film that had no precedent. “He had been working on the idea for a while and had his own reasons.” At one point, Nithin wondered if the entire story would fit into a single film. “Somewhere, given the number of characters and their arcs, it evolved into two parts. Take Bhairava, for example. He starts off as a selfish guy who wants to move on to a complex and by the end of the first film, his character arc is still evolving. He is still not a perfect person.”
Kashi as a damaged vertical city
Exterior view and entrance of Kashi in the film | Photo courtesy: special arrangement
Kashi is shown as a dilapidated city in the film. The mighty Ganga has dried up and people are desperate; there is a shortage of food and water. “We had planned to create a small city,” says Nithin. “We built a huge set (in Hyderabad’s Shankarpalli) with a main road, lanes, a grand entrance, interiors and other elements. For some portions, we ensured the set was at least 400×400 metres so that there was enough depth to capture on camera. The height was up to 30 feet.”
Bhairava’s (Prabhas) introductory action sequence was shot on bridges of varying heights. Ruined portions of temples are also part of the design, which matches with the script. “It was exciting to bring elements of science fiction to a dystopian Kashi.”
Nitin’s team created a 400-page lookbook, detailing the different worlds of the world. KalkiHowever, he soon realised something was amiss. “The designs looked good in themselves, but I felt they didn’t gel well together to be part of a city or timeline. We went back to the drawing board,” he says, and adds, “When I say ‘we’, I mean the entire team, including producer Priyanka Dutt; she was completely hands-on during the work. Priyanka worked closely with the art and production teams, while Swapna (Dutt) worked with the costume department.”
art department
Art directors Anil Jadhav, Santosh Shetty, Velu and Rambone have been part of the art team. Nithin also mentioned Prakeerthi Uppalapati and others from the production and direction department who ensured smooth functioning.
Nitin explains that Kashi was conceived as a vertical city in which “the gods (such as Ashvatthama) lived underground and Demons (Yaskin and his army) ruled from above. Since people in Kashi are deprived of food and water, they look upwards towards the complex.” He makes an analogy and says that the massive construction leading to an inverted pyramid can be compared to common people trying to touch the feet of the complex.
For Kashi, the colour palette is a mix of yellow, brown and black, which is a contrast to the blue (water) and green (vegetation) that define life on campus. Commander Manas, the attackers and others who control Kashi from the campus wear black and gold costumes (designed by Archana Rao) to highlight their dominating nature.
The song that features Bhairav and Roxy (Disha Patani) in the complex features a replica of Michelangelo’s iconic David statue. The design involved some trials, and Nitin’s multidisciplinary skills came in handy.
Yaskin, the opponent of God
“We imagined Yaskin as a fallen god or the opposite of God,” says Nitin, confirming that the spherical space he lives in is a metaphor for the womb, surrounded by water. “For the women in the lab, we designed spaces that look like cages in a large prison.”
On the stairs leading up to Yaskin’s chamber are frescoes depicting the evolution of mankind. On the other side of Yaskin, on the walls are circular spaces with images of humans in the fetal position. “Yaskin is in the center, fashioning himself like a god, as if on the cusp of another stage of evolution.”
Shambala and the mountains
The tree at the heart of Shambala | Photo credit: special arrangement
Shambala, a land hidden in mountains, is mostly white in color. “Shambala is hidden within snow-capped mountain ranges, and it makes sense that all their constructions, weapons, houses and clothing would be white, off white and grey in color, depending on the materials available to them. It also helps as camouflage.”
The large central tree (alluding to the Tree of Life), was a 30-foot-tall structure designed by the art and production team and later enhanced using visual effects.
In the early stages of the design, the tree was shown to have a temple at its base. This was later removed, as Shambala is portrayed as a refuge for people from different religions and cultures. “We removed the religious references and went ahead with the idea of presenting the tree as Mother God,” says Nitin.
Detailed information about Kurukshetra
In the Kurukshetra portion, Nitin drew attention to the minute details used in designing the flags used on the warriors’ chariots and elephants. “We couldn’t take shortcuts and use printed flags, for instance. Every flag you see on the warriors’ chariots has thread work and sometimes fake gems embedded in it. Finally, when we saw it on the monitor, we realised that the flags were somewhere in the background. Even then, Priyanka didn’t question when we needed to design something that was in keeping with the times.” One of the design elements was to create a 17-foot elephant, which when enhanced with visual effects would make it look realistic.
For the Kurukshetra portion, the art, production and costume departments worked towards portraying the images of the war as raw, dry and Indian and chose shades of brown and blood so as not to make it look un-Indian. game of Thrones,
Automobiles and artillery
Concept art of the Monobike | Photo credit: Special Arrangement
Before the film’s release, all eyes were on the custom-built vehicle Bujji, which was first designed in-house and built with the help of Anand Mahindra’s team and Coimbatore-based Jayem Motors. Nithin explains that around 20 to 24 vehicles were designed for the film, of which we have seen only a few in the first part. “All the vehicles were designed to run on the roads, with wheels, and VFX was used to show some of them flying. The structure is completely real,” says Nithin.
The film features weapons from the Kurukshetra era, such as the Gandiva and Vijay bows, spears and arrows, as well as futuristic guns in the science-fiction portion. “In this age of AI (artificial intelligence), no design is left unexplored. We had to work on bringing something new and innovative,” says Nithin.
For the futuristic guns of 2898 A.D., they began designing unconventional guns with no triggers and no barrels. “It was like reinventing the wheel.” One starting point was to try designing knuckle duster-sized guns with buttons and keys for every move. “Some of these guns even open up into larger spherical-shaped weapons. We had detailed science charts of how these guns would work.”
For some of the Shambala guns, Nitin used the principles of Cubism (introduced by artists Pablo Picasso and Georges Braque) to depict 3D reality through geometric shapes on a 2D canvas. “It was a difficult design to develop and white is an unusual colour for a weapon.”
Nitin jokes that he can explain the design language of each world Kalki The hours were long and he spent 80% of the time conceptualising and designing on paper and 20% on executing it. He remembers that when he built a temple structure with a Shivalinga for the film, Nag Ashwin and Priyanka Dutt’s mothers mistook it for a real temple. “They would remove their shoes before entering the place and even perform a puja. After that, we all considered the place a temple.”
Given the enormous amount of work that went into making the film, did the team consider documenting it? “We thought of a coffee table work and I think it is a work in progress,” says Nithin.
