*http://www.hindu.com/thehindu/holnus/009200801071756.htm* ** *Rajni roped in for Shankar's sci-fi movie "The Robot"*
Chennai (PTI): Film director Shankar's Rs 100 crore multi-lingual dream project 'Robot', a sci-fi movie, has finally found its protoganist in the form of 'superstar' Rajnikanth, following the stupendous success of their earlier project 'Sivaji-The Boss'. The trio of Shankar-Rajnikanth and musician A R Rahman will once again join hands for the project, whose rest of the cast and crew is being finalised, a release from the producers said here on Monday. Ayngran International and Eros Multimedia will produce it. `Robot' has been Shankar's dream project and the industry had been buzzing over it for some time, with talks of even the 'Badshah of Bollywood', Shah Rukh Khan coming forward to produce it under his banner, Red Chillies Entertainment, and also donning the lead role. However, Khan later backed away from the project. Speculations were also ripe that `Ultimate Star' Ajith Kumar, fresh from his success of the Tamil remake `Billa', may be roped in by the ace dirctor as the hero for the film. But the release today put an end to all speculation, making it clear that the pair that gave the biggest 'Kollywood' box-office grosser in 2007 will return to set the screens on fire. "Robot will be the grand and entertaining film ever made in Indian cinema and will be produced in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi and will be a high-tech film with the use of the state-of-the-art technology," the release claimed. However, there is no mention of the date of release as the concept is still in nascent stages, with the female lead and others including the technical crew to be finalised yet. The budget for the film is believed to be Rs 100 crores, outdoing Sivaji's Rs 80 crores. -- regards, Vithur A.R.RAHMAN - THE ABODE OF DIVINE MUSIC
