Tamil mega star Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan starrer bilingual film Endhiran is being touted as the costliest film of India with a budget of Rs 150 crore.
The film, which will be released this September inTamil and Hindi (Robot), has been in the making for over two years and has been shot in exotic locations like Vienna in Austria, Machu Picchu in Peru, US and Brazil.
Rajinikanth, 60, loved by audiences for his flamboyant style onscreen, plays a double role of a scientist and robot in the film.
The movie boasts of an impressive foreign crew that has costume designer E Vogt and stunt coordinator Yuen Woo Ping.
According to industry sources, the budget of the film is double of the action entertainer ‘Blue’, which had a budget of Rs 75 crore.
The 40 per cent of the cost has been spent on the special effects in the science-fiction film, which has been directed by S Shankar and produced by Sun TV owner Kalanithi Maran.
Film’s music is by Oscar-winner A R Rahman.
Some of the other films, known for their extravagant budget include K Asif’s evergreen historical love story, Mughal-e-Azam. The film took nine years in the making and cost Rs 12 crore in 1960. Kamal Amrohi’s historical film Razia Sultan starring Hema Malini cost around Rs 23 crore in 1983 and Yash Chopra’s
action thriller Dhoom-2 is said to be made on a budget of Rs 55 crore.
The first trailers of the Rajnikanth-Aishwarya Rai starrer ‘Endhiran’ have finally arrived – and by the looks of it, the film is destined to become one of the biggest hits of all time.
The Oscar winning duo of AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty have jammed for ‘Endhiran’ – Rahman has composed six songs for the film, one of which he has sung himself. Sound designer Pookutty has been handed the final edit of the film and is busy inputting the big action sound effects to polish the film before release. The film’s soundtrack was released on July 31.
The Oscar winning duo of AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty have jammed for ‘Endhiran’ – Rahman has composed six songs for the film, one of which he has sung himself. Sound designer Pookutty has been handed the final edit of the film and is busy inputting the big action sound effects to polish the film before release. The film’s soundtrack was released on July 31.
The producers of the film have already spent crores on the film but director Shankar is contemplating on a 3D version, the conversion would be done digitally during post production (like in the new Harry Potter film). Shankar’s strategy is to bring audiences to the theater, and keep pirates at bay, in case you didn’t already know, his previous film ‘Jaggubhai’ was widely pirated, and was even available on the internet on the day of the release. The director was shown a 3D demo of the film by a leading special effects company, and was highly impressed by the result.
‘Endhiran’ has already broken a lot of records, AR Rahman is now the highest paid musician in India and Aishwarya Rai is the highest paid Bollywood actress of all time, with an upfront fee of Rs 6 crore. Aishwarya beat out the likes of Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Asin, Trisha Krishnan, Shriya Saran, Priyamani and Nayanthara who were approached to star in the film. Endhiran was filmed in Himachal Pradesh, the US, Vietnam, Brazil, with a song shot at the historic site of the Machu Picchu in Peru! Four hundred students from the Vellore Institute of Technology were used as extras in the film. The fight scenes in the film were choreographed by Yuen Woo-ping, who worked on ‘The Matrix’, the animatronics and puppetry were done by Hollywood’s Stan Winston Studios, the visual effects/CGI were rendered by Industrial Light & Magic. Endhiran releases on September 3, 2010.
Aishwarya Rai is perhaps having the busiest time of her life after agreeing to act in Mani Rathnam’s bilingual and Shankar’s Endhiran simultaneously. A few weeks ago, director Shankar gave her a break to participate in the filming of Ravana/ Ashokavanam (tentative titles of Mani Rathnam’s bilingual) while he carried on filming other scenes that did not involve her. Now, with Mani Rathnam’s first schedule getting completed on December 17th, Aishwarya Rai will promptly return to Endhiran on December 18th.
Aishwarya’s husband (Bollywood actor Abhishek Bachchan), hero of Ravana, who had also been filming with her in the dense forests of Kerala, will leave for Mumbai.
In the meantime, Shankar had successfully completed a good portion of Endhiran (also referred to as Enthiran and formerly known as Robot), unrelated to the former beauty queen. He held the film’s shooting in a very secretive manner in Goa and several parts of Chennai. Soon, the crew will move to Kulu Manali for their third round of shooting.
PS: Shankar even thought of holding his third round of shooting in Top Slip to save Aishwarya Rai the trouble of traveling all the way from Kerala to Kulu Manali, but later decided against it and gave her a complete break.
Sun TV Network's movie production arm - Sun Pictures will be handling the production of Endhiran, which stars Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. The movie was earlier being produced by Ayngaran International, which is a part of Eros International.
Endhiran is directed by Shankar and has music by AR Rahman. The film is slated to release in Hindi, Tamil, Telugu and other languages by the end of next year.
The movie boasts of CG, special effects and stunt sequences and will have top notch technicians from Hollywood working on it.
Sun TV Network chairman and managing director Kananithi Maran said, "This is a big moment for Sun Pictures as we feel this is going to be India's biggest movie. We are very happy to be associated with Rajniknath, Shankar and AR Rahman. With this, Sun Pictures shall scale greater heights internationally."
Shankar added, "I am proud to be associated with Sun Pictures and join hands with Mr Kananithi Maran, working with superstar Rajnikanth is a pleasure. Already there are high expectations for this project and by joining hands with Sun TV, the hugeness of this movie will be further highlighted."
Rajnikanth said, "This is India's biggest movie and I am very happy to work with Sun Pictures and Mr Kananithi Maran."
At the time of filing this report, Eros International officials were not available for comment
Cast : Superstar Rajinikanth , Aishwarya Rai Bachan Direction : Shankar Production : Ayngaran International Films Pvt Ltd., and Eros International. Producers: K. Karunamurthi / C. Arunpandian Executive Producer: K. Vijayakumar. Music : A. R. Rahman Cinematography: R. Ratnavelu