Development After the success of
Mahanati in 2019,
Nag Ashwin stated that he had been working on an original story, for which he had spent a long time on. He also stated that the production would begin soon. The project would be funded by
C. Aswani Dutt's
Vyjayanthi Movies, which also funded
Mahanati. The company announced on 7 August 2019 that the production would begin in September and posted a
casting call for various artist positions. On 26 February 2020, coinciding the occasion of the 50th year since the establishment of Dutt's house,
Prabhas was announced to be the lead actor. Tentatively titled
Prabhas 21 (as it is intended to be the actor's 21st film in the lead role), the production would begin after the actor completes filming for
Radhe Shyam (2022). The lead actor, however, reportedly decided to take the
revenue sharing model, receiving ₹80 crore as advance, and a chunk of the profits would be given to him as remuneration. In February 2021, it was reported that the filming would begin in March; however, Ashwin during the promotions for his short film in
Pitta Kathalu (2021) stated that due to the
COVID-19 pandemic and Prabhas' prior commitments, the filming would commence at the latter half of the year. The film's official title,
Kalki 2898 AD, was announced on 21 July 2023. It is a reference to
Kalki, an
avatar of Hindu deity
Vishnu in the
Hindu eschatology, according to the
Bhagavata Purana, and 3102 BC – traditionally thought to be the beginning of
Kali Yuga after the
Kurukshetra War, from the death of Krishna (the film being set 6,000 years into the Kali Yuga, the era of the
asura/demon
Kali).
Pre-production Ashwin co-wrote the film's script along with Rutham Samar,
Sai Madhav Burra and B. S. Sarawagna Kumar, in his second consecutive film with Samar and Burra after
Mahanati. A
muhurat pooja ceremony was held on 24 July 2021 at
Ramoji Film City in
Hyderabad with the presence of the film's cast and crew. The working title was revealed to have been changed to
Project K the same day. Ashwin stated that the film needed high-end technology and futuristic vehicles to be developed for the film. Although they can be recreated using
computer-generated imagery (CGI), the director opted to build these vehicles from scratch. In March 2022, Ashwin requested businessman
Anand Mahindra to provide technical support to build such type of vehicle. A few days later, Mahindra responded that their company
Mahindra & Mahindra would assist the production team from their
Mahindra Research Valley campus in
Chennai. In July 2021, the makers erected a futuristic set at
Ramoji Film City in
Hyderabad where a significant portion of filming is expected to take place.
A. R. Rahman had been initially approached, in August 2020, to compose music for the film but the talks fell out. Ashwin retained most of his technicians, including composer
Mickey J. Meyer, editor
Kotagiri Venkateswara Rao, production designer Nithin Zihani Choudhary, cinematographer
Dani Sanchez-Lopez, costume designers Thota Vijay Bhaskar, Shaleena Nathani and Sahithi Patha. However, Serbian cinematographer,
Djordje Stojiljkovic, replaced
Dani Sanchez-Lopez as the official cinematographer of the film. In February 2023,
Santhosh Narayanan replaced Meyer as the composer. Andreas Nguyen was chosen as the stunt choreographer of the film.
Singeetam Srinivasa Rao joined as a mentor, contributing elements of his planned script on Lord Krishna and providing creative inputs to the project.
Casting Prabhas would sport long hair and beard, with reporters reminiscing his look in the film with
Baahubali.
Deepika Padukone was cast as the female lead, in her Telugu film debut despite having starred in the unreleased
Love 4 Ever.
Amitabh Bachchan was confirmed to play an important role, in his Telugu film debut as he had previously only made cameo appearances in
Manam (2014) and
Sye Raa Narasimha Reddy (2019). Ashwin stated that his role was "so important that his character's name [Ashwatthama] was the working title of an early draft".
Kamal Haasan also joined the film in an important role, while
Disha Patani was also cast in an important role. The film marks their return to Telugu cinema after
Subha Sankalpam (1995) and
Loafer (2015), respectively.
Shobhana,
Saswata Chatterjee,
Brahmanandam, and
Pasupathy were cast in important roles.
Anna Ben made her Telugu debut with this film.
Keerthy Suresh and
Arjun Das appeared in voice roles respectively; former as Bujji and latter as Lord
Krishna. Initially, Keerthy Suresh was offered another undisclosed role, but she rejected it and later accepted the voice-role. Harshith Malgireddy, Kavya Ramachandran, Ayaz Pasha, Anil George, Keya Nair, Vinay Kumar, Venkata Ramana, Hamish Boyd and Sanghawa Shin were present during the film's preliminary shooting schedule.
Dulquer Salmaan,
Vijay Deverakonda,
Mrunal Thakur,
S. S. Rajamouli,
Ram Gopal Varma and
K. V. Anudeep briefly had respective cameo appearances.
Filming , where parts of the film were shot|left
Principal photography began with the first schedule on 24 July 2021, on the occasion of
Guru Purnima, at Ramoji Film City in Hyderabad featuring Bachchan. Prabhas and Padukone joined the production in December 2021 and scenes featuring both the actors and Bachchan were shot. The second schedule of the shoot took place in February 2022. Instead of shooting the entire film in a single stretch, the team divided its 80–90 days of shoot into 7–8 days every month. This actually allowed the production team to take time and prepare the gadgets and props to be used in the film. Therefore, the production of the film was expected to take longer than usual. DIY
Arri Alexa 65 camera was used to shoot the film, thus making it the first Indian film to use this technology. Prabhas was expected to start filming his solo portions in April 2022, however, his knee surgery led to a delay of his upcoming projects including
Salaar and
Kalki 2898 AD. 90% of the shoot was done in sets built in Ramoji Film City. In June, Bachchan shot for a scene at
Raidurg metro station. In July, Padukone and Prabhas shot for a car chase sequence in Hyderabad. Prabhas completed shooting the majority of his portions by the end of this schedule. However, the film was still being shot in March 2023 when Bachchan injured his ribs and was advised to take rest in Mumbai. Around 70% of the filming was completed by June 2023. On 20 July 2023 at
San Diego Comic-Con,
Nag Ashwin revealed that while the film was mostly shot in Telugu, they were also reshooting some scenes in
Hindi to make them more impactful. However, the Hindi version is reportedly mostly dubbed. A romantic track featuring
Prabhas and
Disha Patani was filmed in Italy in March 2024 including at the
Royal Palace of Caserta.
Post-production The film features
visual effects by the studios
DNEG and
The Embassy Visual Effects. These studios also collaborated with StealthWorks Taiwan, Folks VFX,
Lola Visual Effects, Pixstone Images and Labyrinth. DNEG and The Embassy created the film's environments and action sequences. The Embassy handled approximately 700 shots for the film and DNEG handled the principal visual effects and
CGI shots for the film. Their tasks included creating a desert wasteland,
futuristic vehicles for high-speed chases, utilising a broad range of VFX techniques, and creating 3 distinct worlds of:
Kasi,
Shambhala, and the Complex. == Themes and influences ==