During the pre-release event of Kalki 2898 AD, Kamal Haasan spoke about his role in the film. He said, "I always wanted to play a bad man because the bad man gets to do all the good things and have fun. I thought I was going to play the bad man so it's going to be fun. But then, he (Ashwin) wanted it to be different. I'm almost like a sage in the film with a bad idea."