2.0 (film)

2.0
First look poster
Directed by	S. Shankar
Produced by	Subaskaran Allirajah
Written by	S. Shankar B. Jeyamohan
Starring	Rajinikanth Akshay Kumar Amy Jackson
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Cinematography	Nirav Shah
Edited by	Anthony
Production company	Lyca Productions
Release dates	18 October 2017 (2017-10-18)
Country	India
Language	Tamil Hindi Telugu[1][2][3][4]
Budget	₹4 billion[5]

2.0 is an upcoming Indian science fiction film written and directed by S. Shankar, co-written by B. Jeyamohan and produced by Subaskaran Allirajah, founder of Lyca Productions.^[6] A spiritual successor to the 2010 Tamil film Enthiran, the film will feature Rajinikanth reprising the roles of Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti, alongside Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson.^[7]The film will be released in six languages: Tamil, Hindi, Telugu, English, Chinese and Japanese.^[5][8] With an estimated budget of ₹400 crore (4 billion), it's the most expensive Indian film till date.^[5]

Cast

• Rajinikanth as Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti
• Akshay Kumar as Dr. Richard^[9][10]
• Amy Jackson
• Sudhanshu Pandey as Dr. Bohra's Son^[11]
• Adil Hussain^[12]
• Kalabhavan Shajohn^[13]
• Riyaz Khan^[14]
• Kaizaad Kotwal
• Maya Krishnan

Production

2.0 is being produced in Kollywood, the center of Tamil language films in India, which is based in Chennai, however it is being filmed in multiple languages simultaneously.

Development

The commercial success of Enthiran (2010) prompted the makers of the film to immediately consider making a sequel and by March 2011, the original film's cinematographer, Rathnavelu revealed that initial pre-production work on a second part had begun with the same technical team.^[15][16] S. Shankar, the director of Enthiran, moved on to work on Nanban (2012) and I (2015) and plans to reunite with the same producers as the original was dropped, with Shankar revealing that he was unsure if the film "will happen at all" during an interview in 2014.^[17] While finishing the production of I, Shankar drafted the scripts of three more feature films, including that of a sequel to Enthiran.^[17]

Pre-production works for the film were reported to have started in June 2015 with Lyca Productions deciding to finance the project. Along with Shankar and Rajinikanth, composer A. R. Rahman and editor Anthony were retained to work on the film from the original, while Jeyamohan was added to the team to help write dialogues. Shankar also began briefing the film's art director T. Muthuraj and VFX supervisor V. Srinivas Mohan about their involvement in the film.^[18][19] Nirav Shah joined the technical team as a cinematographer in mid 2015 and visited specialist studios in the United States to research filming methods for 3D shoots.^[20][21] Jeyamohan finished work on the script of the film in September 2015 and revealed that the story would be a direct continuation from the 2010 film, with filming only set to start following the completion of Rajinikanth's commitments in Kabali (2016). The original film's dialogue writer, Madhan Karky, helped Jeyamohan on some of the more technical dialogues in the script.^[22][23] A press release coinciding with the start of the film's shoot, also revealed that Resul Pookutty would handle sound designing, Legacy Effects would take care of animatronics work and that Mary E. Vogt would design special costumes. Stunt choreographer Kenny Bates and visual effects specialists John Hughes and Walt Jones were also signed to work on the film.^[24] In June 2016, Pookutty revealed during the midst of production that the film would not serve as a sequel to Enthiran, rather a spiritual successor.^[25][26]

Casting

Shankar held initial discussions with Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan and then Vikram about portraying a further role, though none of the three actors signed on to appear in the film.^[27][28] Subsequently the team held talks with Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role, who agreed to work on the film for a record remuneration.^[29][30][31] The makers then opted against signing Schwarzenegger, though there have been conflicting reasons regarding this decision.^{[lower-alpha 1]} British actress Amy Jackson signed on to work on the film in October 2015 and visited Los Angeles as a part of the team's pre-production work.^[34] In late November 2015, Rajinikanth also travelled to Los Angeles to meet the film's producers and complete costume trials and initial motion capture technology work for the venture.^[35][6] After further negotiations with actors including Hrithik Roshan and Neil Nitin Mukesh, the makers signed on Akshay Kumar to portray the role in which Schwarzenegger was initially considered.^[36]

Sudhanshu Pandey joined the cast of the film during March 2016 and revealed that he would portray a scientist, who is the son of Professor Bohra from the original film. Adil Hussain began working on the film in July 2016, and as a part of his role undertook extensive research into the life of news reporters.^[11][37] In September 2016, Malayalam actor Kalabhavan Shajohn confirmed that he had shot for a role in the film, after Shankar was impressed with his performance in Drishyam and had signed him on.^[13]

Filming

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, where a football sequence is filmed.

An official launch event was about to held on 12 December 2015, coinciding with Rajinikanth's birthday, but the team chose to avoid publicity as a result of the 2015 South Indian floods.^[38] Instead, the team held a low key launch event at the AVM Studios on 7 December with the director and the producers in attendance. Titled 2.0, the film consequently began its first schedule with shooting held on 16 December 2015, at a set erected in the outskirts of Chennai at EVP World.^[39][40][41] On the first day of shoot, a scene featuring Rajinikanth and several dwarf actors was shot at the erected set, while the team's principal cast and crew also assembled for a photo shoot.^[42] The first schedule of the film, consisting of Rajinikanth and Amy Jackson, continued in Chennai until 30 December 2015.^[43] The team then worked on a second schedule throughout the middle of January 2016 in Chennai and shot scenes featuring Rajinikanth at Mohan Studios and by Madras Boat Club.^[44] Shankar continued filming portions not involving the lead actors throughout February 2016 in Chennai, with a car chase sequence shot in Royapettah.^[45] Another schedule to shoot a song was initially meant to be held at Salar de Uyuni in Bolivia but was cancelled owing to bad weather, and the team opted not to travel to the country.^[46]

Akshay Kumar began shooting for the film in Chennai at the beginning of March 2016 and took part in a schedule held at the EVP Film City studio in Chennai. A set of a mobile phone store was erected at the location, while night scenes involving robotic equipment and military tanks were also canned.^[47] The team subsequently moved to Delhi to hold a forty five day schedule, continuing on from the same scenes with military tanks that were shot in Chennai.^[48] Subsequently, the team filmed sequences at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium depicting an Indian Super League match between Chennaiyin FC and Mumbai City FC, with hundreds of junior artistes recruited to act as supporters. Actors Amitabh Bachchan and Abhishek Bachchan visited the film's set at the stadium with the media reporting that the pair were set to make cameo appearances, though the claim was later denied by the team.^[49][50] Rajinikanth then joined the team in Delhi at the end of March to continue shooting for the project, with the climax sequences being filmed. Action scenes involving robotic equipment was filmed throughout early April in Delhi, with cinematographer Nirav Shah using helicams to capture sequences involving the three lead actors.^[51][52]

Another ten day schedule took place in May 2016 in Chennai, with scenes being shot at the EVP Film City studios as well as at The Forum Vijaya shopping mall.^[53] During the shoot at the studios, the VFX designer Srinivas Mohan digitally converted a green screen sequence into locations including the Red Fort and the Parliament from Delhi, after the team were unable to secure shooting permission there.^[54] By June 2016, Shankar revealed that after one hundred days of shoot, scenes including the climax and two major action sequences had been completed and that the film was fifty percent complete.^[55] After plans of filming a song portion in Morocco had fallen through, Nirav Shah did a test shoot for the song "Roja Kadhal" in Ukraine during June 2016, at locations including at the Tunnel of Love.^[56] Adil Hussain and Kalabhavan Shajohn began their work in the film during July 2016 in Chennai, while the rest of the cast had been given an extended break after Rajinikanth had fallen ill.^[57][58] Production continued throughout August and early September 2016 without the lead actors in Saligramam in Chennai, where the team shot action sequences of luxury cars being blown up.^[59] Following his illness and subsequent recovery, Rajinikanth returned to the sets of the film in early October, after a break of close to four months. He shot for scenes alongside Amy Jackson in Chennai, where he was featured fighting huge birds created using animatronics technology, with actor Riyaz Khan also joining the cast. Soon after the schedule finished in early October, Shankar revealing that the film was two-thirds complete, following one hundred and fifty days of shoot.^[60][61]

Another schedule began in early November at EVP Film City in Chennai with all of the lead cast and continued throughout the month.^[62]

Music

A. R. Rahman will compose the music of the film. While the soundtrack will include at least five songs, only one song will be played in the film.^[63]

Release

2.0 is scheduled to be released around Diwali in mid-October 2017.^{[64][65][lower-alpha 2]}

Notes

References

External links

• 2.0 at the Internet Movie Database