Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar starrer 2.0 directed by Shankar is undoubtedly the biggest 3D film ever made in India. And Shankar is known for being very secretive when it comes to his films. The teaser of the film was released on September 13 and since then social media has been abuzz.
Senior journalist Rajeev Masand caught up with the filmmaker Shankar on CNN News18, who gave away some interesting facts about his film, like what is the real budget of the film and also why did the makers keep pushing the release date of the film.
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Shankar Bowled Over by Rajinikanth
First film, Rajinikanth came as a new comer. Very excited, very obedient, very disciplined. He has some kind of attraction. Whatever he does it’s very attractive. His screen presence is amazing. He was not well when we were shooting the climax. But he never shows. He had high temperature, with that fever he acted wearing the heavy special suite. His cooperation and dedication is matchless.Shankar
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It’s True! Budget of 2.0 is Almost 75 Million Dollars (Rs 543 Crores)
Including publicity and prints, it must be somewhere between 70 and 75 million dollars. So it’s a round figure that people are talking about. See, I don’t start with the budget, I start from the script. This script demands a big budget. Very advanced technology has been used and it has the best technicians, so it’s taking its own budget. We have to appreciate Mr Subhashkaran, the producer.Shankar
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Akshay Kumar and his Prosthetics
Akshay is amazing. Just like Rajini sir he is also very disciplined, dedicated and punctual. In the whole film he is wearing prosthetic make-up. He told me, ‘In my whole 40 years of my career I have put all the make-up in one film.’ We have to appreciate his patience because with prosthetic make-up, costume, sunlight, he suffered a lot but he gave his best.
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Here’s Why the Film was Delayed
The film was delayed because of lot of factors which is not in our hands. This film was supposed to release one-and-a-half year back. That was my initial plan. Unfortunately one major VFX company, promised to deliver two months before 2017 Diwali so that’s why production announced the release date as Diwali but they were not able to deliver. They wanted more time. They told us by January we can release the film. Based on that we organised a function in Dubai, an audio launch. During the audio launch we were told they won’t be able to deliver even in January. We were shocked but we had no option because the function had already started. Then we analysed all the factors. The VFX company asked for another year to complete the whole thing. Then we realised that they didn’t have the capacity or to handle the complexity of VFX so we decided to go for a bigger company. Then we got Double Negative company. They are doing Marvel films. Last year they won the Academy Award for Blade Runner 2049. While shifting also we had some practical problems. It was like uprooting a tree from one place and planting it. To shift each and every element has taken a bit longer.
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You can watch the part one of the interview here:
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Topics: Rajinikanth Akshay Kumar Shankar
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