Actor Rajinikanth’s 2.0 , which is already being labelled as the costliest Asian film till date, just got costlier by Rs. 50 crore.
The film’s budget has now ballooned to Rs. 400 crore. “Considering that the film has received a tremendous buzz, we have decided to make sure that the film really measures up to Hollywood standards. We are spending more money to enhance the visual effects of the film,” said Raju Mahalingam, Creative Head, Lyca Productions.
The film, which is directed by Shankar and also stars Bollywood superstar Akshay Kumar, is also likely to release in 6 languages — Tamil, Telugu, Hindi, English, Japanese and Chinese.
The production house has hinted that the number of languages could increase as they have received enquiries unexpectedly from newer markets. “We have received enquiries from Brazil and Argentina as well. So we are happy that the film is being talked about and has the potential to unlock newer markets,” said Mr. Mahalingam. He said that even in the traditional markets, the film will be screened in more theatres than usual. “Apart from the traditional markets for Hindi/Tami/Telugu movies such as the U.S., U.K., the middle east, Singapore and Malaysia, some distributors have approached us to screen the film in more than 300 screens in the German and Austrian markets. Even the most popular Indian films are not screened in more than 40-50 screens in these countries,” he added.
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Taking it easy, together
Fans of music composer A.R. Rahman were in for a pleasant surprise on Thursday after the composer made a surprise announcement seeking crowd-funded lyrics for an upcoming performance.
In a Facebook post on his page, the composer said that he was going to rearrange the song Take it easy Urvasi for an upcoming performance and was planning on updating the charanams (secondary verses) for which he asked people to contribute lyrics.
The song, a composition by Rahman, featured in the 1994 movie Kaadhalan directed by Shankar. Picturised on Prabhu Deva, the song was extremely popular due to the lyrics and the actor’s steps.
Many fans immediately commented on the composer’s post and shared probable lyrics followed by the ‘Take it easy urvasi’ refrain. Over 900 responses had come in by night, including exhortations to not worry even if there were no likes for changes of Facebook DPs.
The composer, while asking his fans to contribute something ‘interesting & humorous in the same scaling of the original Tamil version’, also added a condition. “Please do leave out and avoid any reference to Hilary Clinton, Donald Trump or the currency situation for now,” the post said.
(Reporting by Udhav Naig and S. Poorvaja)
