Nag Ashwin’s Indian sci-fi blockbuster  ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ is charting a course for international waters, with Russia and Japan next on its releasing itinerary, entertainment news outlet Variety has reported.

The film is set to release in Japan in early 2025 through Twin, the distribution company headed by industry veteran Kabata Keizo. Twin previously released ‘RRR’ in Japan, where it became the highest grossing Indian film of all time.

The film is also set for a Russian release, with a dubbed version expected to hit theaters in the coming months. For China, which has previously been a fertile ground for selected Indian commercial titles, the producers are still exploring their options.

Meanwhile, as earlier reported in the Indianbroadcastingworld.com, ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ has been praised for weaving together elements from the Mahabharata with sci-fi and director Ashwin, who already has a sequel in the works, is confident that Indian mythological stories, if told correctly, can match the complexity of the western superhero genre.

The film, starring Amitabh Bachchan, Kamal Haasan, Prabhas and Deepika Padukone in key roles, has turned out to be a money-spinner at the box office at a time when the big budget titles have failed to yield results.

Is ‘Kalki 2898 AD’ India’s answer to superhero movies from the stables of Marvel and DC Studios in Hollywood?

‘I don’t know if it is an answer or not but we definitely have the kind of stories and the depth, complexity and heroism that any other Marvel or DC movie (has). We just have to delve into it and tell it in the correct way.

‘If we tell it in a way that the generation now is used to, maybe mix it with sci-fi, I feel that would be the correct way. And that’s actually worked out because people are now feeling that it is our story,’ Ashwin told PTI in an interview earlier this year.

Set in the future dystopian city of Kashi (Varanasi), the story revolves around Bachchan’s immortal warrior Ashwathhama who is trying to protect the next avatar of Lord Vishnu, carried by Padukone’s Sumathi. Prabhas’ Bhairava, a bounty hunter, is sent to find her by Haasan’s antagonist Supreme Yaskin.