2.0 upcoming new film

2.0 (film)

Directed by         S. Shankar

Produced by      Allirajah Subaskaran

Written by          S. Shankar

B. Jeyamohan (Tamil dialogue)

Abbas Tyrewala (Hindi dialogue)

Starring                Rajinikanth

Akshay Kumar

Amy Jackson

Music by              A. R. Rahman

Cinematography              Nirav Shah

Edited by             Anthony

Production

company

Lyca Productions

Distributed by   AA FILMS (Hindi)

Global Cinemas (Andhra Pradesh and Telangana (Telugu dubbed version)

Release date

January 2019

Country                India

Language            

Tamil Hindi

Budget ₹500 crore

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 The film serves as a spiritual successor to the 2010 Tamil film Enthiran, and features Rajinikanthreprising the roles of Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti, alongside Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson. With an estimated budget of ₹500 crore, it is the most expensive Indian film made to date.

The film is being shot simultaneously in Tamil and Hindi,with a release date yet to be confirmed and additional dubbed releases in 13 other languages.

Development

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

Pre-production work for the film was 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 remained on the development team for the sequel, while Jeyamohan was added to help write dialogues. Shankar also began briefing the film's art director T. Muthuraj and visual effects supervisor V. Srinivas Mohan about their involvement in the film. Shankar had initially inquired about K. V. Anand's availability. This was before 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. Jeyamohan finished work on the script of the film in September 2015 and revealed that the story would be a direct continuation of 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 dialogue in the script. 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 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. In June 2016, Pookutty revealed during film production that it would not serve as a sequel to Enthiran but rather a spiritual successor.

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. Subsequently, the team held talks with Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role, who agreed to work on the film for a record remuneration. The makers then opted against signing Schwarzenegger, though there have been conflicting reasons regarding this decision. 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. In late November 2015, Rajinikanth also travelled to Los Angeles to meet the film's producers and complete costume trials and initial motion capture effects work for the film. After further negotiations with actors including Hrithik Roshan and Neil Nitin Mukesh, the makers signed on Akshay Kumar to portray the role for which Schwarzenegger was initially considered.

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. In September 2016, Malayalam actor Kalabhavan Shajohn confirmed that he had tried out for a role in the film after Shankar was impressed with his performance in Drishyam and had signed him on.

Release

In November 2016, it was revealed that 2.0 was scheduled for release during Diwali on 18 October 2017. In April 2017, one of the producers, Raju Mahalingam, announced that the film's release had been postponed to 25 January 2018 citing better incorporation of visual effects.The release date was later moved to 14 April 2018. The release date was once again moved to 27 April 2018 but instead Kaala took that spot resulting in another delay of the film.The making video of the film was revealed on 25 August 2017.Besides Tamil, Hindi, and Telugu, the film will be released in 12 other languages too.The film, which contains approximately 11,000 visual effects shots, was delayed numerous times while the computer-generated imagery (CGI) work was being completed by numerous effects studios. In June 2018, news reports indicated that the film would be postponed to January 2019, again because of the intensity of the visual effects work.