Kamal Haasan, who is playing a cameo role in director Nag Ashwin’s film ‘Kalki 2898 AD’, talked about playing the villain in the film. On June 19, the makers held a press conference in Mumbai with the film’s producers Prabhas, Kamal Haasan, Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone. Rana Daggubati hosted the show and Kamal Haasan revealed that he always wanted to play a bad guy in films.

The ‘Vishwaroopam’ actor will play the role of Supreme Yaskin in the film. Speaking at the event, Kamal Haasan spoke about his desire to play villainous roles in films.

He said, “I was telling Amit ji (Bachchan) backstage that I always wanted to play a bad guy, because the bad guy gets to do all the good stuff. The heroes sing romantic songs and wait for the heroine, while he (the bad guy) just goes ahead and does whatever he wants. I thought I’m going to play the bad guy, so it’s going to be fun.”

Kamal Haasan further added, “But, he (Nag Ashwin) wanted it to be different. I am like a sage with an evil idea in the film.”

He also talked about his dangerous look in the trailer of ‘Kalki 2898 AD’. He said that it has never been done before, he said, “We discussed a lot about it and also that it doesn’t look like anything else that I have done before or anyone else has done.”

He then added, “I thought I had a brilliant idea and I hadn’t seen any pictures of the film, so I thought I would dress myself in such a way that people would turn around and look at me.”

Kamal Haasan said, “I thought, ‘I will do research’ and I found out, ‘Amit ji is doing it (the film)’. Then I thought, I will come with the armor, I was told, ‘Prabhas has that’. I didn’t want to get pregnant in the film (referring to Padukone’s character Sumathi), otherwise I would have tried that too. With a good director, that could have been possible too.”

The actor also revealed that the entire team went to Los Angeles to get the look right. “We went to LA, we failed a number of times before we landed on an acceptable look. So, it’s a collaboration. I hope the audience reacts the same way we did when we saw the first look,” he revealed.

Watch the trailer here:

Kamal Haasan was all praise for Nag Ashwin, calling him a simple man with extraordinary ideas, like his mentor, the late filmmaker K Balachander.

“I am used to such ordinary-looking people (referring to Ashwin) who do extraordinary things. My boss, my guru (K. Balachander) was one such person. He looked like any government official. If he entered somebody’s house, you would think there was an Income Tax raid. But I have seen from his films what he was capable of doing,” he said.

“I think ‘Ek Duje Ke Liye’ was his 60th or 70th film. So I was not surprised. I don’t underestimate these ordinary looking people. There is a depth in them which is not seen unless you talk to them. I got a chance to talk to him (Nag Ashwin), he is a man of few words,” he said.

‘Kalki 2898 AD’ is a science-fiction film set in a dystopian world. The film will be released in theatres on June 27 in 2D and 3D formats.