Talking about Nag Ashwin, Saswata remembers being surprised by the director’s composed demeanour when they first met. He says, “Before we commenced shooting, Ashwin just asked me to trust him, and I went by that. He is so calm and soft-spoken. It was only when instructions were being passed on sets that you would hear him speak loudly. Looking at him, you would not believe that he has conceived and executed such a high-concept film.”Saswata reveals that he shot for Kalki 2898 AD over a period of two years, adding that most of his scenes were with Deepika Padukone, who plays the role of Sumati in the film. Talking about his working experience with Deepika, Saswata says that he was floored by her down-to-earth nature. Recounting their first day on set together, he says, “We both came around 10.30 am, and I was continuously going and giving my shots till 5 pm. And all the while, Deepika was waiting there on the sets, laughing around. After every shot, she would sweetly ask me, ‘Dada, phir aapko bulaaya… Mujhe nahi bulaaya?’ (Dada, again, they called you but not me?). It was very sweet of her.”Praising the thorough process of the Kalki 2898 AD team, Saswata recalls the detailing for one particular action sequence where he was one of the principal actors. “When I went on the floors, I saw this huge board with 250 photographs, with each photo representing a particular shot. Then they showed me the edited version of the whole fight sequence in pre-visualisation. After each shot was taken, they removed that photo from the board. They were that elaborate.”Further talking about his working experience with the Kalki team, Saswata states, “There was so much background work going on all the time; it was amazing. In general, I don’t know how the Telugu film industry works. But for this project, they did not worry about time and money. They just wanted to make a great film.”
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