Rajnikanth’s latest flick Endhiran—called Robot and Robo in two other Indian languages—was released this weekend to a record opening in India and overseas.
The Tamil film is India’s biggest budget film to date, and is also reported to have broken the record for Asia’s most expensive film so far. The movie is believed to have cost around 1.62 billion rupees (162 crore rupees) or approximately US$36.4 million to produce.
Rajnikanth has a huge fan following in South India and many other places where the South Indian population is large. He began by playing anti-hero roles in the late 1970s, but has since gone on to play more positive heroic roles in several blockbusters, particularly in the 1990s and early 2000s which have only served to increase his fan following.
In Tamil Nadu, the state where Rajinikanth is most popular, legions of fans are known to pour out on to the streets and erect 100-foot tall placard displays of the mega-star in public streets before his major film releases. The setup is usually followed by pouring milk on his placard look-alikes, in an almost festival-like activity usually reserved for religious deities.
The film itself is one of the large Indian film industry’s few attempts at creating a big-budget science-fiction film. In the story, Rajinikanth plays two roles, one as a research scientist creating a life-like robot, and the other the robot itself which takes on human emotions. To complicate things further, both creator and robot fall for the same girl, creating a chaotic situation.
The lead female role is played by North Indian film star Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss India and Miss World, who is also one of Bollywood’s most successful actresses.
The film opened in around 2,000 theatres worldwide on Oct. 1, according to the Endhiran website. The film review for Indian publication DNA probably summarized viewers’ sentiments with a 4 out of 5, concluding, “This a Rajni fest all the way, and it’s not to be missed.”
Whatever may be said of the 60-year-old Rajinikanth, he remains India’s most dependable box-office star and still has enough panache to bring in throngs of fans to his every film release.
The Tamil film is India’s biggest budget film to date, and is also reported to have broken the record for Asia’s most expensive film so far. The movie is believed to have cost around 1.62 billion rupees (162 crore rupees) or approximately US$36.4 million to produce.
Rajnikanth has a huge fan following in South India and many other places where the South Indian population is large. He began by playing anti-hero roles in the late 1970s, but has since gone on to play more positive heroic roles in several blockbusters, particularly in the 1990s and early 2000s which have only served to increase his fan following.
In Tamil Nadu, the state where Rajinikanth is most popular, legions of fans are known to pour out on to the streets and erect 100-foot tall placard displays of the mega-star in public streets before his major film releases. The setup is usually followed by pouring milk on his placard look-alikes, in an almost festival-like activity usually reserved for religious deities.
The film itself is one of the large Indian film industry’s few attempts at creating a big-budget science-fiction film. In the story, Rajinikanth plays two roles, one as a research scientist creating a life-like robot, and the other the robot itself which takes on human emotions. To complicate things further, both creator and robot fall for the same girl, creating a chaotic situation.
The lead female role is played by North Indian film star Aishwarya Rai, a former Miss India and Miss World, who is also one of Bollywood’s most successful actresses.
The film opened in around 2,000 theatres worldwide on Oct. 1, according to the Endhiran website. The film review for Indian publication DNA probably summarized viewers’ sentiments with a 4 out of 5, concluding, “This a Rajni fest all the way, and it’s not to be missed.”
Whatever may be said of the 60-year-old Rajinikanth, he remains India’s most dependable box-office star and still has enough panache to bring in throngs of fans to his every film release.
