Indian pride was on full display at Comic-Con’s Hall H in an ear-splitting and thunderous panel for Project K, the first ever Indian movie to be showcased not only at the pop culture convention but also in the room that have launched so many Hollywood movies, including those from Marvel, Warner Bros./DC and Legendary’s monster pics.
The panel featured a who’s who of Indian superstars – Prabhas, Kamal Haasan, Amitabh Bachchan (via Zoom), veteran Bollywood producer C. Aswani Dutt — and each one’s entrance was greeted with chants and screams. It was a form of Beatlemania hysteria rarely seen in Hall H.
“Indian cinema in on the world stage,” said Rana Daggubati, another Indian actor and producer who acted as an unofficial moderator for the panel and who sat among the Project K team. “We understoond what global fandom means … but we were like, now we need to be in the middle of fandom is, and Comic-Con it is!”
The proceedings kicked off with a spectacle steeped in Indian culture as a line of drummers in Indian dress beat out an introduction as two lines of women holding candles to made their way through the darkened hall and took to the stage for a ceremonial dance.
Project K was then introduced to be called Kalki 2989-AD, a sci-fi epic that blends Indian mythology and Star Wars.
The teaser trailer shown (see below) had the hallmarks of popular Indian movies, including the Oscar-winning cultural breakthough, RRR. It is over the top, heroic, and chest-thumpingly epic. The crowd ate it up and as soon as it was over, began chanting for a replay.
“What makes Indian cinema so great is the energy our audience brings to our cinema,” said Haason. “We make the stories, they make the stars.”
Ashwin said the movie has been in the works for a long time. It took four years to prep it, then two years to film it. Now he’s looking forward to a release in 2024.
He said the blend of mythology and sci-fi made it “a different Indian film.”
“It’s still an Indian film at heart, it’s Indian mythology, our culture, from being a south Indian, from being Telugu, from being Indian, from being a fan of Star Wars, all of that love comes into this one thing. It’s a new kind of thing.”
The historic moment, and what it means to Indian cinema, was not unnoticed by the filmmakers.
“It’s a very proud moment for us,” said Swapna Dutt, the daughter of C. Aswani Dutt who is a producer on the movie. “This is something we have not dreamt of. There was Telugu cinema, then it became southern cinema, then Indian cinema. But bringing Indian cinema to Comic-Con is just incredible.”
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