Sawt Falasteen - Indian stars bring superhero show to strike-hit Comic-Con

"Kalki 2898 AD" -- set for a 2024 release -- became the first-ever Indian movie given a coveted slot at the San Diego pop culture gathering's famous Hall H auditorium, where countless Marvel superhero films have been revealed.

In contrast with other toned-down events at this year's strike-hit Comic-Con, Thursday's presentation featured a phalanx of futuristic soldiers, performers pounding giant drums, and dancers dressed in white saris.

Prabhas and Kamal Haasan -- giants of southern Indian cinema -- were joined via video link by Bollywood legend Amitabh Bachchan, and greeted with hysterical roars from an audience largely comprised of attendees from the South Asian diaspora.

"Here you guys have superheroes -- you love your superheroes so much. If Superman can fly into space, we have Hanuman who can eat the sun," said director Nag Ashwin.

"I'm very interested for the world to meet India."

Afterward, Ashwin told AFP that he hopes the film can "do something similar" to hit movies like the Spider-Man and Iron Man franchises, but offer a more international story than US-focused superhero films.

"It's always New York that gets attacked" in Hollywood films, he joked.

"Let's bring that whole thing here... let's get people from around the world to India. So it's global in that sense."

While plot details are under wraps, Prabhas said his character was inspired by the ancient Sanskrit epic the Mahabharata.

A trailer showed a war-torn future world in which people are violently oppressed by mysterious forces, with Prabhas seemingly playing a warrior leading some form of resistance.

Ashwin said he was heavily influenced by "Star Wars," jokingly calling the film's masked soldiers the "Indian version of Stormtroopers."

- Tollywood -

The arrival of "Kalki 2898 AD" at Comic-Con comes hot on the heels of the breakout success of last year's "RRR," which won an Oscar for best song.

Both movies hail from southern India's Telugu-language film industry, aka Tollywood.

With a reported $75 million budget, "Kalki 2898 AD" supplants "RRR" as the most expensive Indian film ever made.

"The idea of this film started before the 'RRR' Oscar campaign," said Ashwin.

But the international success of last year's hit "must have made life a lot easier for us," he said.

"Kalki 2898 AD" also brings in stars more associated with the famous, Mumbai-based Bollywood industry, such as Bachchan and Deepika Padukone.

"As we figured out and saw what the story was becoming, it slowly became necessary for us to have these guys," said Ashwin.

"Because the world we're trying to build is of that scale. And to make it believable, you needed people of that scale."

Padukone, known to Western audiences for starring alongside Vin Diesel in "xXx: Return of Xander Cage," did not attend Comic-Con as she is a member of the striking Screen Actors Guild (SAG-AFTRA.)

"I think it is a just battle. And I wish them well," Haasan told AFP of the strike.

- Song and dance -

Despite its increasing diversity and global success, Indian film is still often best known in the West for its singing and dancing.

His latest film has "not much" by way of musical numbers, although Ashwin believes those traits can appeal to Western audiences too.

"I remember somebody saying that 'you probably need to remove a song if you want to release it internationally,' or 'you probably need to keep it under a certain length,'" said Ashwin.

"But I feel that is really up to the film."

"Nobody said that to Fred Astaire or Gene Kelly," agreed Haasan.

"You don't have to remove anything."

I.Yassin--SF-PST