Nag Ashwin on why Deepika Padukone couldn’t take the initiative in Kalki 2898 AD: ‘She comes from…’

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Deepika Padukone in Kalki 2898 AD.

Deepika Padukone had a relatively limited meaty scenes in Kalki 2898 AD. Director Nag Ashwin explians why.

Deepika Padukone delivered a stellar performance in Kalki 2898 AD. Essaying the role of Sum80 aka Sumathi in the Nag Ashwin film, Deepika has a few high moments in the film. However, fans hoped to see a lot more of her. Director Nag Ashwin has now explained the reason it seems like Deepika had a lesser role to play in the film. He revealed that while Deepika is the crux of the film, the events around her take the centre stage as compared to her story in Kalki 2898 AD.

“She is the most integral part of the story. Whenever someone asks me, you have these four super important characters, who do you think whose story is it? We had a lot of discussion on whose story is it when we were writing as well. I think the simplest answer we arrived at was whose character do you remove if the story doesn’t exist? And that’s Deepika’s character. If you remove her, there is no story, there is no Kalki,” Nag Ashwin told Zoom TV.

“Deepika had to bear that weight but she also couldn’t be that proactive part of the story because so much is happening around her and she comes from a certain place in the labs. She can’t be like Kyra or Mariam. She was caught in the headlight. Inadvertently she did become a little bit of a damsel in distress but that’s the world she was in,” he added.

Despite the ‘damsel in distress’ viewpoint, Deepika had her big moments in the film. Be it the walking through the fire to attempting to fight the goon in the Mad Max style action scene, Deepika had everyone’s attention in scenes that revolved around her.

With the cliffhanger ending, it seems like there is a lot more in store for Deepika in the Kalki 2898 AD sequel.