Friends,
Today Economic Times has come out with first ever authenticated scoop regarding
ROBOT, its budget, release language and Sivaji's success.
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Rajni unseats SRK to swing Robot
D Govardan CHENNAI
DIGGING for gold appears to have become superstar Rajinikanth' s favourite
pastime. As if the Rs 80-crore blockbuster Sivaji — The Boss was not enough,
filmdom's money spinning hero has now signed up for India's costliest movie.
Pegged at Rs 100 crore, director Shankar's Robot, a science fiction film, will
see Rajni replace King of Bollywood Shah Rukh Khan as hero.
London-based Ayngaran International, in which Kishore Lulla-owned Eros
International picked up a controlling stake last July, is to produce the film.
Robot will be released in five languages for a global audience. This dream
project of Shankar was also to be produced by SRK's Red Chillies Entertainment.
In fact, last year, the film had been planned featuring filmdom's other cash
king Shah Rukh Khan. However, owing to differences between Shankar and SRK on
the creative front, as acknowledged by the latter in recent statements, the
film was dropped about two months ago.
Observers say, given Shankar's penchant for large canvas presentations the
cost of production of Robot could even cross the Rs 100-crore mark, setting a
new Indian record. "Ayngaran and Eros Multimedia will be jointly producing
Robot featuring Rajinikanth and directed by Shankar. The formal agreements will
be signed soon," Ayngaran International CEO Rohan Manickavasagar told ET on
Friday from London.
Film to be released in five languages
Eros and Ayngaran had together distributed Sivaji globally, which is said
to have grossed between Rs 150 crore to Rs 170 crore from both the domestic and
overseas markets. "Robot will be a joint production. The film will take
anywhere between 18 to 24 months for completion and will be produced at a cost
in excess of Rs 100 crore," Mr Manickavasagar said.
The film will be made in Tamil, but will be released in five languages,
including Hindi and Telugu, besides a couple of other regional languages. "It
will also have stars from Bollywood. But these finer details will be finalised
in due course," he added.
Shankar had originally wanted to do Robot with Kamal Hassan over five years
ago for Media Dreams, the now defunct film arm of Chennaibased Pentamedia
Graphics. Somewhere down the line, even Hritik Roshan's name came up for
serious consideration. But Rajini appears to have swung it yet again.
With Rajinikanth becoming a national phenomenon after Sivaji, which also
generated interests in international markets, Robot is expected to be marketed
in a big way overseas too. Tamil films have a huge market in the UK, USA,
Canada, France, Germany, Norway, Switzerland, Malaysia, Singapore, Sri Lanka,
South Africa, Australia and the Middle-East.
- Economic Times 5/1/2008, Chennai Edition
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Thanks and Kudos to our member Prathap who informed the same to me....
- Sundar
