Archana Rao on ‘Kalki 2898 AD’: The minute Amitabh Bachchan tried on the Ashwatthama costume, it looked brilliant

Archana Rao on ‘Kalki 2898 AD’: The minute Amitabh Bachchan tried on the Ashwatthama costume, it looked brilliant. Directed by Nag Ashwin, the film stars Prabhas, Deepika Padukone and Kamal Haasan.

Imagine the possibility of designing the look of a character that is supposedly the oldest man alive. When director Nag Ashwin first narrated the story of Kalki 2898 AD, nearly four years ago to Hyderabad-based fashion designer Archana Rao, she was fascinated by Ashwatthama, the character inspired by Mahabharata, played by Amitabh Bachchan. She began imagining him in 2898 AD, in a science fiction setting. Archana, who had collaborated with Nag Ashwin for Mahanati and the short film xLife from the Netflix Telugu anthology Pitta Kathalu, was game for the creative challenges ahead.

Speaking from the USA, where she is currently travelling, Archana, a name to reckon with in Indian fashion, discloses that Kalki 2898 AD is the first film for which she designed costumes for the entire cast. For Mahanati, Gaurang Shah designed Keerthy Suresh’s costumes while she did the honours for Dulquer Salmaan, Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha Ruth Prabhu, and a few others.

In the initial stages of Kalki, the only condition Nag Ashwin had was that Archana oversee the costume design for the entire film. “It proved to be challenging and a huge shift in my career. Coming from a fashion designer background, I was pleasantly surprised by how naturally I took to costume designing during Mahanati.” Archana and Gaurang winning the National Award for Best Costume Design for that film was a recognition of the work that went into it. 

Kalki warranted a new approach. “I have not been exposed to many science fiction movies. I knew it would be tough but I was also aware that I would have a fresh perspective. I decided to dive right in.”

She stepped in knowing that it would be an ambitious project. “We planned one segment, one character, one task at a time so that it does not become intimidating. For all of us — the direction team, costume design, production design, cinematography — it was like working on several small projects within one big project.”

In a promotional video, Nag Ashwin explains that the story navigates three settings — Kasi becomes the last city in which it is a matter of survival of the fittest, an inverted pyramid city named the Complex that contains essential resources such as food and water, and Shambala that has become a refuge.

Each of these worlds, says Archana, required a particular design approach. “We would bounce ideas off each other,” she says, recalling the planning stages during which Nag Ashwin, producers Priyanka and Swapna Dutt, the cinematography department led by Djordje Stojiljkovic and production design led by Nitin Zihani Choudhary would brainstorm.