Nag Ashwin Reddy To Anand Mahindra: Build Futuristic Vehicles For Project-K

The Telugu-Tamil bilingual, Mahanati, starring popular actress Keerthy Suresh and directed by Nag Ashwin Reddy, has been a commercial success with rave reviews at the box office. And now, the popular Tollywood director has his hands full on his next -- Project K -- a science fiction flick starring Amitabh Bachchan, Prabhas, and Deepika Padukone. A star-studded cast, for sure.  

But interestingly, Reddy made a request to Anand Mahindra, the chairman of the Mahindra Group, to build futuristic vehicles for the upcoming movie. Though the crew of Project-K has engineers and a proper team for development, Reddy asked for a helping hand from Mahindra, considering the company’s expansive technical expertise. 

Here’s his tweet for the request:

I admire you a lot sir..v have a talented, fully Indian team of engineers and designers..but the scale of the project is such that we could use a hand..such a film has never been attempted before...it would be an honor if you can help us engineer the future... #ProjectK

— Nag Ashwin (@nagashwin7) March 4, 2022

The best part is, Anand Mahindra, known for being active on twitter with his inspiring and helpful tweets, has expressed his full support on making this a reality. He was quick to add that R Velu Samy (chief, global product development, Mahindra and Mahindra), will offer all the help needed for this mega project.  

Here’s what Anand Mahindra said to Nag Ashwin Reddy:

How could we refuse an opportunity to help you envision the future of mobility @nagashwin7 ? Our Chief of Global Product Development @Velu_Mahindra will, I’m sure, happily throw his weight behind you. Velu developed the @xuv700 & already has his feet in the future! https://t.co/4DDuOULWZD

— anand mahindra (@anandmahindra) March 4, 2022

Mahindra vehicles are popular stars in quite a few movies. The Scorpio spinning around in Ajay Devgan’s Singam and the previous-gen Thar in Rajinikanth’s Kaala are some notable examples. And with Anand Mahindra himself being a movie buff and collector (he asked for Rajini’s Thar from Kaala), he naturally wouldn’t turn down such offers.   

This would be among very few instances where an Indian carmaker would be collaborating with a filmmaker. An example similar would be the customised Aston Martin cars from the James Bond franchise or the BMW Vision EfficientDynamics concept in Tom Cruise’s Mission Impossible 4. It would also be refreshing to see Mahindra building vehicles for a particular project, like this movie. 

Meanwhile, the recent Mahindra pushing the bounds in the technological front, is no doubt the XUV700. The three-row midsize SUV is the first one in its segment to get Advanced Driver Assistance System, Alexa connected car tech, and a Mercedes-like twin digital driver’s display. To know our opinion about the XUV700, read our detailed first drive review.  

Mahindra will also reveal the Born range of electric vehicles in July and that could be a base for the movie-specific models. Nag’s brief included futuristic vehicles, and the Born EVs – with their unique styling – look like nothing seen before in India. But will this combination lead to a rave movie like how Mahanati did? That’s something we can answer once the movie is released, so stay tuned!