When Sun Pictures, the film division of Sun TV Network,
released the much-awaited Rajnikant-starrer Endhiran in Tamil (dubbed in Telugu as Robo and in Hindi as Robot) on October 1, 2010 with
unprecedented 3,000 prints world over, amid spontaneous fan frenzy and
tremendous media buildup, it became the talking point of the nation for a
few days. Produced by Sun Pictures at a whopping budget of Rs 162 cr, Endhiran is easily the most expensive movie
ever made in Asia. Matching the buzz it generated, the movieriding a wave
of what the media termed `Rajni mania,' in India and abroadwent on to
become an instant box office success, netting an unprecedented Rs 117 cr in the
first week, surpassing the first-week collection of Bollywood's highest
first-week grosser Dabangg (Rs 82 cr).
How Sun Pictures, which had hitherto concentrated only on distribution
of movies, ended up producing Endhiran is an interesting story in itself.
After the stupendous success of director Shankar's previous movie
with Rajnikant, Sivaji, there were reports that the director would take up
his dream project where the protagonist would be a robot, which he in fact
had announced in 2001 but could not carry forward for lack of funds. Fresh from
the box office success of Sivaji, released
on June 15, 2007, an enthusiastic Shankar once again revived the `robot'
project, thanks to Shah Rukh Khan who came forward to produce as well as act as
the male lead in the movie titled Robot. An announcement to this effect was
made in July 2007. However, `creative differences' between Shah Rukh Khan
and Shankar soon surfaced and the project was officially called off in October
2007. After sounding out a few other actors like Aamir Khan, Shankar finally
zeroed in on Rajnikant, in January 2008, to play the lead.
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