India's Project K and Lords of the Deccan are storming San Diego Comic Con this year

While Indian comic books have debuted at the prestigious San Diego Comic Con earlier, no movie has been introduced at this stage. Project K changes this, as the big-budget superhero flick is all set to witness its official trailer launch at SDCC 2023.

The world’s premier Comic Con has borne witness to many major pop culture announcements, including release dates and first looks of comics, video games, movies and TV shows. While the Project K team had flown in already to launch the trailer, actor Rana Dagubbati also announced another upcoming project from his production house: a drama series based on the historical fiction book Lords of The Deccan: Southern India from Chalukyas to Cholas.

Here’s everything that went down regarding the Indian “delegation” at SDCC.

Project K team has reached but the audience still awaits the trailer

Project K has been teased as a pan-Indian superhero project ever since its first look poster dropped last year. Bearing traces of dystopian sci-fi flicks like Oblivion and Dune, the movie was promised to be a thrilling adventure with potential for its own cinematic universe (such as what Brahmastra sought to do with the Astraverse). 

The stellar cast includes Deepika Padukone, Amitabh Bachchan, Rana Daggubati, Kamal Haasan and (sighs) Prabhas as the protagonist. The lead actor has been having quite a tough time lately due to his involvement in the universally panned Adipurush. But if Project K comes close to the Baahubali franchise (in which both Prabhas and Daggubati were involved), that would still be a positive sign.

So far, the first look of Prabhas's character has been revealed at the SDCC, showing what seems like an armoured exoskeleton reminiscent of Iron Man (even his pose is similar to Iron Man's typical stance, complete with punching the ground). His bearded look, however, remains the same as his previous roles like Adipurush. The first official trailer is set to debut at the Comic Con on July 20 (July 21 for Indian audiences). Masked figures called "Raiders" also took over the event, promoting Project K with posters. 

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Moving on over his Adipurush blunder, Prabhas flew to San Diego with co-stars Kamal Haasan and Daggubati. Sharing posts under the hashtags #ProjectK and #WhatisProjectK, the cast members also sported black hoodies bearing the same text. Fans of Prabhas even conducted car rallies across the US to extend their support. 

Rana Daggubati also announces a slate of new projects

Baahubali baddie Rana Daggubati has been dabbling in production along with acting, as can be seen in the case of his recent Netflix series Rana Naidu. An Indian adaptation of Ray Donovan, Rana Naidu was produced by Spirit Media, a production house that he founded in 2005 before his acting debut. 

At SDCC, Dagubbati announced Spirit Media’s multi-genre plans for the future. These include a graphic novel series based on Netflix’s 2021 Malayalam superhero film Minnal Murali and a live-action mythological show in which Daggubati would play the antagonistic king Hiranyakashyap. 

However, the project that raised the most eyebrows was a proposed adaptation of Anrirudh Kanisetti's Lords of the Deccan in association with Sony LIV. The original book was lauded as one of the best historical works of 2022 with critics praising its exploration of the ancient dynasties that ruled South India. 

As of now, Daggubati’s plans are to adapt the early portions of the Chalukyas (that ruled mostly over Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh) for the first season. The actor can probably follow the same route as Hotstar’s Mughal-themed historical drama Empire that kicked off with the reign of Babur in its first season. With Mani Ratnam’s two-part epic Ponniyin Selavan making the Cholas mainstream, Lords of the Deccan can definitely help in revitalising interest in the Chalukyas.