Nag Ashwin’s Telugu-language mythological sci-fi epic Kalki 2898 AD is like many modern South Indian blockbusters, in that it draws roars of approval from crowds in theaters for major cameos. That might not sound too different from your average Marvel movie, but while Hollywood’s cameos usually depend on familiar characters showing up from other films, the cheers for “special appearances” during hits in languages like Tamil and Telugu are usually for famous stars and known faces slotted into minor roles.
Kalki features these appearances in spades. Actor, playback singer, and all-around heartthrob Dulquer Salmaan plays a roguish warrior in a key flashback. Comedic actor Brahmanandam — known for having appeared in over a thousand films — shows up as a snarky landlord. Even renowned Telugu and Hindi filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma fills in as a mouthy street-food vendor. But he isn’t even the biggest Indian director with a speaking role. That distinction belongs to RRR director and star S.S. Rajamouli in a brief cameo as a bounty hunter who appears mid–chase scene to bicker with the movie’s lead anti-hero, Bhairava, played by action star Prabhas.
MCU cameos usually hint at a shared continuity, but special appearances in Indian blockbusters are all about shared real-world history. They tend to acknowledge the connective tissue between various actors and directors, and their career-long relationships. Last year’s Bollywood action movies Pathaan and Tiger 3, star vehicles for Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan, respectively, both belong to the same cinematic universe and featured brief appearances by each Khan in the other’s movie. As a treat for loyal fans of Hindi cinema, their dialogue hinted at numerous other roles they’ve played opposite one another, as if the industry itself were the shared universe in question, occupied by their star power.
Rajamouli’s cameo works in a similar way. As Bhairava drives his weaponized vehicle through an unforgiving desert (en route to his umpteenth fight scene), his old creditors begin catching up with him and demanding their pound of flesh. There’s an in-world justification for this — all the city’s bounty hunters, including Bhairava, are after the same target — but it’s the perfect opportunity for some fun meta-textual banter with Rajamouli’s character warning Bhairava that he’s going to keep him busy for another five years.
Prabhas was the lead actor in the box-office-record-shattering Telugu-language Baahubali films that Rajamouli directed in 2015 and 2017. Both films took a combined five years to make, turning the duo’s brief exchange into a fun in-joke that most Indian audiences will recognize. (Baahubali 2: The Conclusion remains the highest-grossing film in India.) And since much of Kalki 2898 AD’s story revolves around reincarnation, Rajamouli’s presence is also a fun acknowledgment of both men’s past lives in a different franchise.
For better or worse, these cameos have become an increasingly visible fixture of Indian blockbusters, but their effect isn’t limited to the delights of recognition. The recent Tamil action movie Jailer, led by the revered superstar Rajnikanth, saw appearances from major names including Kannada- and Telugu-language mainstays Shiva Rajkumar and Mohanlal, central figures in Tamil cinema’s sister industries who have occasionally cross-pollinated. These appearances make business sense as well, especially as movies from different local industries compete for screens across the country. Unlike the U.S., which is dominated by a single filmmaking industry, Indian cinema is subdivided by region and language, with the likes of Tollywood (Telugu), Kollywood (Tamil), Mollywood (Malayalam) and so forth having their own major stars, whose crossover appearances are often teased or even outright revealed beforehand, and become part of a movie’s marketing.
The emerging dominance of these non-Bollywood industries has slowly given rise to the “Pan-Indian” film, wherein stars from different parts of India, who usually act in different languages, are either cast in regular parts — Kalki 2898 AD also features Tamil superstar Kamal Haasan and Bollywood’s Amitabh Bachchan and Deepika Padukone — or in smaller cameo roles. RRR similarly featured appearances from Bollywood actors Alia Bhatt and Ajay Devgn, while eagle-eyed Kalki fans are likely to spot Marathi-language star Mrunal Thakur, rising Malayalam-language actress Anna Ben, and the voice of Tamil actor Arjun Das. It even features a background track from Punjabi hip-hop artist Diljit Dosanjh, further widening the movie’s crossover potential.
Rajamouli is generally beloved by fans of Telugu cinema, who are already showing up in droves to watch Kalki. News of his cameo is likely to draw even more eyes to the film, especially moviegoers in the west who flocked to RRR but may not be generally aware of new Telugu releases. So not only does the filmmaker’s cameo carry personal significance for its star but it might even grab the attention of non-Indian audiences who enjoyed Rajamouli’s Oscar winner — that is, if the news of Kalki outgrossing RRR’s North American box-office opening doesn’t pique their curiosity first.
