Kalki 2898 AD Not for Bihar and Odisha's Audience, Says Mukesh Khanna, Gets TROLLED: 'Shame on You'

Actor Mukesh Khanna, who played Bhishma in BR Chopra’s television series Mahabharat, has been receiving a huge backlash on social media for his recent problematic comment, which he made while reviewing Nag Ashwin’s Kalki 2898 AD on his YouTube channel.

Khanna stated that while he would give 100 points to Kalki 2898 AD for the performances and scale, he felt that the film was designed to appeal to the West and the audiences in Bihar and Odisha wouldn’t understand it.

“The level of intellect with which the film has been made is fine for Hollywood. People are more intelligent than us over there. Forgive me, but audiences in Odisha and Bihar are not going to understand this kind of filmmaking,” he said. His statement has prompted outrage on social media, with netizens calling him out for his disrespectful remark.

Sharing his statement, one user wrote on X: “So according to Mukesh Khanna, the people of the state that gave birth to Pathani Samanta and Aaryabhatta aren’t smart enough to understand Kalki 2898 AD. What a shame that understanding a film is a benchmark of one’s intelligence.” Another one wrote, “Guys do you think I am dumb on account of being an Odia? So dumb that I cant understand the film Kalki with cliches patched up from Hollywood? Mukesh Khanna seems to think so.”

A third user said, “Mukesh Khanna thinks Kalki is only for the intellectual types who binge on Hollywood movies, not for the masses in places like Odisha and Bihar. Seriously, folks like Mukesh Khanna underestimate our brains and assume everyone is as clueless as they are. If Robo (Enthiran) raked in 300 crores in 2010 and Endgame bagged 400 crores in 2019 in India, why doubt our love for sci-fi in 2024? Mukesh Khanna’s ‘Aryamaan – Brahmaand Ka Yodha,’ a blatant Star Wars knockoff, came out in 2002. So, he questions our brains in 2024, but released a sci-fi TV show in 2002? What a joke!”

Meanwhile, Khanna also criticised director Nag Ashwin for showing a misleading story about the Mahabharata. He said that he found the filmmakers’ decision to change elements of the Mahabharata to be offensive.

He said, “In the beginning, when Krishna curses Ashwatthama by removing his ‘mani’, this never happened. I want to ask the makers, how could you presume to know more than the Vyas muni, who said that what doesn’t exist here cannot exist elsewhere? It wasn’t Krishna who removed Ashwatthama’s ‘mani’. I’ve been reading the Mahabharata since childhood; I can tell you that it was Draupadi who instructed that his ‘mani’ should be removed, after he killed all five of her children.”

He further said, “The liberties that you’ve taken are inexcusable. We think that South filmmakers have more respect for our traditions, but what happened here?,” adding that the government must set up a special committee to review mythological films and projects that have mythological connections.