Big B in a scene Kalki 2898 AD(Etiquette: YouTube,
New Delhi:
Nag Ashwin’s ambitious film Kalki 2898 AD It is all set to hit the theatres on June 27. The science-fiction film stars Prabhas, Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan and Disha Patani. With just a few days left for the film’s release, Nag Ashwin spoke to IANS. Film Companion About the experience of directing megastars like Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan. The director revealed that he found it “silly” to tell Amitabh Bachchan what to do on the first day of the shoot. When asked how do you tell Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan what to do with a shot, Nag Ashwin candidly said, “I don’t know how to deal with Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan. I always feel very silly trying to tell them something about their acting or performance. But, especially for Mr Bachchan sir, because we started our journey with him in this film. Like, the first day of the shoot was with him. And I was absolutely clueless. I think it had been a long time since I shot anything, almost two years or three years and then the first person I had to direct was Amitabh Bachchan. I was like, ‘What am I going to say?’ Maybe, ‘Sir, slow down a bit?’ It felt silly.
Despite their status as icons of cinema, Nag Ashwin said Amitabh Bachchan and Kamal Haasan were “open and receptive” throughout the film.
Nag Ashwin added, “But, after moving forward with all of them I realised that they want to be a part of the process, they want to be directed. They don’t want to think that they know what they are doing. Especially, the bigger they are, like Bachchan sir and Kamal sir, they are more open to being valued and having more ideas. They were even more open to being directed. They don’t want to do what they have done before. They were like ‘Don’t make me Mr Bachchan or Mr Kamal Haasan, I don’t want to do that’.”
On Monday, the makers took the internet by storm when they released the trailer of ‘Dabangg 3’. Kalki 2898 AD,
When asked what kind of a director he is, Nag Ashwin said, “There are certain things that I leave and there are certain things that I take a lot of time to (execute). I think it’s because I started out as an editor. So, there are certain things that others think need to be shot a lot of times, and I’m like no, it’s not like that, it’s going to happen very quickly. So maybe that’s the kind of guy I am.”
