Rajinikanth replaces Shah Rukh Khan in India's costliest movie

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.

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 Chennai-based 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.

D. Gowardan, TNN