‘Kalki 2898 AD’: Prabhas’s character may die in the sequel, predicts ‘Mahabharat’ star Nitish Bharadwaj

Will Bhairava, the dashing and jolly bounty hunter, played to perfection by Prabhas in ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ meet a tragic ending in its sequel? Actor Nitish Bharadwaj, best known for playing Lord Krishna, in the celebrated TV series ‘Mahabharata’, revealed that the character may meet a grim end in the sequel.

In an interview with News18, he said, “Prabhas, aka Karna, will die in the ambition of being accepted by the villain despite Ashwatthama (Amitabh Bachchan) and Krishna showing him the path to redemption.”

The veteran actor was also all praise for director Nag Ashwin for his clever use of iconic characters from ‘Mahabharata’ and for including references to various events in the epic in his movie, like Easter Eggs. “(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,” he told News 18.

Although he teased the director by saying he is available if they ever decided to cast Krishna, the actor maintained that no actor would probably land the part, as the idea was always to keep the deity as this mysterious, enigmatic figure. “ “The idea was to always keep him a silhouette and formless, without an identity. Otherwise, it just becomes a person or an actor. The idea was always to keep him dark-skinned and silhouetted, just like a mysterious figure. I think that'll (casting) go against the point,” he had said.

Produced by B.R. Chopra and directed by his son Ravi Chopra, Mahabharat was a television series based on the epic Mahabharat. It consisted of 94 episodes and originally aired on Doordarshan from 1988 to 1990. The cast included Girija Shankar, Goofy Paintal, Gajendra Chauhan, Pankaj Dheer, Mukesh Khanna, and Roopa Ganguly, among others.

About ‘Kalki 2898 AD’

Helmed by Nag Ashwin, the magnum opus is a sci-fi epic fantasy, set hundreds of years into a dystopian future. The movie marks the Telugu debut of Bollywood stars Deepika Padukone and Amitabh Bachchan.

Starring superstar Prabhas in the lead, the movie has emerged as a smash hit. It has minted Rs 487 crore (and still counting!) domestically. Made on a budget of Rs 600 crore, ‘Kalki’ is one of the most expensive films ever made in India.