Kalki 2898 AD title explained: Why Prabhas, Amitabh, Deepika-starrer is set in 29th century; know its Aryabhatta connect

The trailer of the much-anticipated dystopian film Kalki 2898 AD was unveiled on Tuesday. The pan-India film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas, and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles. The Nag Ashwin film is influenced by Hindu mythology and features characters from the epic Mahabharata. For a while, the film was known by its working title Project K until its title was revealed last year. Since then the date in the title has intrigued many. We take a look at the significance of the year in which Kalki 2898 AD is set.

Who is Kalki?

The film talks about the Kalki avatar of Lord Vishnu, which has been written about in the Mahabharata. The scriptures mention the Kalki incarnation as the person who would bring about the end of the Kali Yuga, the current age of Hindu mythology. The messiah-like figure is said to arrive on a white horse with a flaming sword and put an end to all evil in the world, ending the Kali Yuga and bringing about the pralay (a cleansing of the cosmos). Kalki 2898 AD’s trailer hints that Deepika Padukone’s character is pregnant with the Kalki incarnation. The forces of evil – led by Kamal Haasan – are after her, while Ashwatthama (Amitabh Bachchan) is protecting her. Prabhas plays a bounty hunter named Bhairava who is somewhere between the two sides, looking out for himself.

What Kalki’s link with 2898 AD?

It is written in the Mahabharata that Kalki will be born at the end of the Kali Yuga. But the duration of the Kali Yuga is a subject of debate itself. The puranas say that the Chatur Yuga (the combined duration of the Sat Yuga, Treta Yuga, Dwapar Yuga and the Kali Yuga) is 43,20,000 years. But the Mahabharat stated that the Chatur Yuga is 24,000 years long with each of the four ages 6,000 years long.

In his book Surya Siddhanth, mathematician Aryabhatta studied the position of the celestial bodies mentioned in Mahabharata and deduced that the Kurukshetra War took place in 3128 BC. Based on that, he theorised that the Dwapar Yuga ended on February 18, 3102 BC, the day Lord Krishna left Earth. That was the day Kali Yuga began too. By this logic, Kali Yuga should end 6000 years after this, which comes out to the all-too-familiar date of 2898 AD.

Mahabharata’s Easter eggs in Kalki 2898 AD trailer

The Kalki 2898 AD trailer included several Easter eggs about the story of Kalki. For one, Ashwatthama is protecting the unborn child of Deepika’s character as redemption. In the Mahabharata, he was cursed by Lord Krishna after he attempted to kill the unborn son of Uttara, Abhimanyu’s wife. Then, a fleeting glimpse of a computer screen in the trailer shows that Deepika is called Sum-80 in the film. In Mahabharata, Kalki’s mother is named Sumati, which is how Sum-80 could be pronounced. And of course, the biggest Easter egg is the conflict for water. The Hindu scriptures say that end of Kali Yuga would be an era of great evil, where even the oceans will dry up, a visual the trailer shows.

Directed by Nag Ashwin, Kalki 2898 AD is the most expensive Indian film ever made with a reported budget of Rs 600 crore. The film is set to see a grand release worldwide on June 27.

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