Endhiran Robot Aishwarya rai latest Stills

Much hyped Enthiran is India’s most expensive film yet By Kavitha Muralidharan These days in Chennai, Enthiran (Robot) is the talk of the town. After being in production for over two years, the movie has, expectedly, created a ballyhoo that would be difficult for anything ordinary to live up to. But then who says Enthiran is ordinary! Touted as India's costliest film, and releasing in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, the movie was made at a whopping 5150 crore. The film has many firsts to its credit. It is the first science fiction film in Tamil; for the first time Rajinikanth pairs opposite Aishwarya Rai; and this is Sun Pictures' first direct production. For Shankar, known as director of extravagance, Enthiran is a dream come true.  "The script was ready 10 years ago. It is just that the time came only now, " he said. The film is about a scientist who creates a robot hoping it would prove useful to society. The robot, however, falls into evil hands. The rest of the film is about how the scientist redeems the robot. While Rajinikanth plays both the scientist and the robot, Rai plays his love interest. About 40 per cent of the budget of the film has gone into special effects. Said Shankar:  "Enthiran is the first Indian movie to use Stan Winston Studio 's animatronics technology. We all are proud and happy to be associated with the number one Hollywood studio that did a great job in movies like Jurassic Park, Predator, Terminator, Iron-man and Avatar." Sun Pictures has ramped up the film's publicity. While the audio release of the Tamil version was held in Malaysia, the audio releases for Hindi and Telugu were held in Mumbai and Hyderabad, respectively.  According to sources, the film could be traded for over 5300 crore and will be released at 1,000 theatres across the world. The release, though, slated for September 24, could be delayed by a few days.  Aishwarya Rai has described the film as an  "incredible work of passion". Said she at the audio launch in Malaysia: "It is a landmark film for all of us individually. I thoroughly enjoyed working on this film and I will cherish it forever." The film is also special for A.R. Rahman; his daughter Katheeja sang the title song  along with S.P. Balasubramaniam.  "She recorded the song for me past midnight and the next day she did not go to school," Rahman said. Rajinikanth's first film with Shankar, Sivaji the Boss, created quite a stir in the industry  and Shankar promises the actor will look even younger in Enthiran. Rajinikanth is now 60-plus and Aishwarya Rai, 37.  "It is going to be one rocking pair. I cannot wait to watch the movie," said Vinoth Kumar, Rajinikanth fan.  "Whatever it takes, I hope to catch it first day, first show." Roles, clothes and more Shankar first considered Kamal Hasan for the role. Later it was discussed with Shah Rukh Khan but he finally zeroed in on Rajinikanth. "God wanted me to do the role,"said Rajinikanth, at the Mumbai audio release function. Aishwarya Rai is donning 57 different costumes in the film. Her tribal look with Rajinikanth is expected to be different. The film was to be originally produced by Ayngaran Movies. When the budget exceeded the limits of Ayngaran Movies, Sun Pictures took over.