Category — Robot

Rajini is all set to fly to Vietnam. He is going there to participate in Sultan the Warrior film shoot. He is wrapping up Kuselan in Alapuzha, Kerala. Once that is complete he is likely to participate in another grueling schedule for Sultan. After that he is going to take a short break at Himalayas and will be back when Robot starts rolling in August.

How long it has been since Rajini did movies back to back? This guy gets bolder when he gets older.

After Sujatha’s sudden demise, veteran writer Balakumaran will take over the dialogues department of magnum opus Robot. Balakumaran in no stranger to Shankar’s team. He wrote dialogues for Jeans, Kadhalan and Gentleman movies.

Some of his other credits include Nayagan and Guna. With Rajini he gave two super hit movies - Baashha and Baba and is known for penning immortal punch lines such as “oru thadavai sonna nooru thadavai sonna mathiri…”.

Sujatha was certainly irreplaceable. We are going to miss “Aathi-nna - pottu vechittu pongal saappidaravannu ninachiya?” type of humor-laced one liners. Now that he is no more, we are certain that Balakumaran is best of the rest. Welcome to the team!

Folks, it cannot get any better than this. Latest buzz in the filmi circles is that, none other than Kamalhassan will feature in Robot. Speaking on the condition of anonymity, sources close to Shankar’s camp said that Kamal was approached to lend his voice for Jeeno, the robotic puppy that is playing a pivotal role in the movie. Kamal enthusiastically agreed to play this role. He reportedly even went for a voice test that happened in Ramoji Rao Film City in Hyderabad last month, where he tried different modulations of his voice. Both Kamal and Shankar were quite happy with the results, we hear.

There is a trend in hollywood to use superstars’ voice for animated movies. Such movies turned out to be huge blockbusters. To name a few, Shrek, The Bee Movie, Finding Nemo, Shark Tale are such movies. Super stars such as Jerry Seinfeld, Eddie Murphy and Robert De Niro who lent their voices added life to the movie, so to speak. Shankar is introducing another hollywood phenomenon to Indian cinema. Hats off to him!

Jeeno the robotic dog, was an important character in Sujatha’s original ‘En Iniya Iyanthiraa’, a novel on which the Robot movie is based. This character reached such a cult status, that Sujatha named the sequel after the dog ‘Meedum Jeeno’. This character captured the readers’ imagination in that legendary novel. We have to wait and see if Shankar can recreate that magic in silver screen.

There is no better person to lend the voice for Jeeno than Kamal. I remember a hilarious scene in Punnagai Mannan where Kamal playing the role of Chaplin Chellappa, tries hard to pacify a crying child. He would mimic different animals like a dog, a rooster and a monkey, to make that kid smile. He amazed with me with the perfection that he brought to the not-so-important scene of the movie. Lets see if he can use his animal instincts to add depth to Jeeno’s character in Robot. Cant’ wait to see!!!

Click here for latest on this news story!

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan’s cup of joy overfloweth! The gorgeous actress said that the main reason for her accepting the film Robot is none other than the Super Star himself.

While Ash had several offers in the past to work with Rajini, none worked out. “At every phase of my career I’ve been offered something with him. All those projects fell through. There was no way I was going to say no this time”, the actress said.

“I can proudly say I’ve worked with the stalwarts of North Indian and South Indian cinema - Amitabh Bachchan and Rajnikant! What more could I ask for ?” said a visibly thrilled beauty queen.

Robot movie commenced this week with a photo shoot scheduled in a hugely erected set in AVM studios by Cabu Syril. Sources said that make up tests are being taken with the Super Star trying various hairstyles. At this time only Rajini is participating in the shoot. Next schedule of the photo shoot is tentatively organized in May during which Aishwariya Rai is expected to participate.

In other news Thiru replaces Nirav Shah as the cameraman. Thiru is quite a busy bee these days.  Hindi movie Bhool Bhulaiya (Chandramukhi in Tamil) is one of his big recent hits.

Veteran writer Sujatha passed away today in Chennai after a brief illness. He was 73 and survived by his wife and two sons.

Sujatha whose real name was S.Rangarajan has written hundreds of novels, short stories and stage plays. His novels in 70s and 80s were huge sensational hits. He was also a successful screenplay writer.

He carved a niche for himself by writing science fiction novels which is a rarity in Tamil. Many speculate that Robot movie was inspired by his super hit novel ‘En Iyiya Iyanthiraa’.

May his soul rest in peace.

Two days ago an internet magazine claimed that Aishwariya walked out of Robot since she is planning to have a baby by the year end. This created a minor flutter among many. When we probed the matter further we came to know that there is no basis for this rumor. However we waited for the dust to settle down and some kind of official announcement on this matter.

Speaking with reporters yesterday Ash said that it is only a rumor and that she and Abhishek are not planning to have kids at least for the next three years and their main focus until then would be their respective careers. She further said that she read the Robot script and she is extremely excited to be part of it. Speaking about Rajini, she said she has always been looking forward to act with Rajini and it has materialized after a long time.

Who would be crazy enough to walk away from six crores, huh?

Some news portals reported that Robot has been rechristened Iyanthiraa. However there is no official word from the production company or the crew.

Interestingly we noticed in some of the internet forums many people are asking what Iyanthiraa means. Iyanthiram means machine in tamil. By changing Iyanthiram to Iyanthiran, it adds a human dimension to it. So we are given to understand that a machine with human tendencies can be termed as Iyanthiran. This word has all the hallmarks of inimitable Sujatha! It is an interesting name that sure to kindle some curiosity. It is novel, unique, trendy and catchy and we really love it.

But is it really a tamil name? Sujatha is an authority in coining Tamil equivalents of familiar and popular English words. However it takes time, sometimes few years for some new words to enter people’s vocabulary after which it becomes like a normal word. Until then, it is going to be hard for people to recognize a name. It will continue to be a marketing nightmare for the movie makers. Secondly, will the Tamilnadu government recognize this as a Tamil name for the purpose of tax exemption? But then, the government does not seem to have any hard and fast rules to determine if a word is really a tamil word. A case in point: Sivaji and Dasavatharam are not tamil words.

Some may argue that for a Super Star’s movie, title is of least significance. A Rajini’s movie is a Raini’s movie no matter what you choose to call it. I have no choice except to agree with you on it. I recall when Chandramukhi was announced it created a mini-controversy that Rajini chose to act in a movie titled after the movie’s lead female character. Needless to say, that the movie went on to break all records making that argument completely baseless. If the movie was named Vettaiyan do you think that the results would have been different? We think not.

When the title Sandiyar created a huge controversy, Kamal Hassan gave in and changed the title of the movie as Virumaandi. That time he said in an interview a title of the movie has very little to do with the movie itself. For example, he could even name the movie as “Kamal 2004″ and it is neither going to change the substance of the movie nor the results would be any different.

“Kamal 2004″??? That would be outrageous, but we see your point Sir!

Talking to press yesterday, Ash confirmed that she has been offered the role and she is excited to be part of the project.

“Yes, I have been offered the role and I’m very excited about it,” opined the 50 Kg Taj Mahal, “Working on the schedule has begun and they are trying to make it happen.” Curious reporters questioned her why it took so long to be paired opposite Rajini despite repeated attempts. Blaming it on her tight schedule, Ash said both Shankar and Rajini were great entertainers, independently of each other. If they are coming together once again, and there is no way she is going to miss the opportunity this time, she said.

When questioned about the limited role heroines get to play in Rajini’s movies (come on guys, take a break, how long are you going to ask the same type of questions?), She said Rajini is so super fascinating in his movies everyone else in his movies gets sidelined. However there is no deliberate attempt by the director or the actor to reduce the importance of any actors/actresses, she said.

If ToI reports were to be beleived, Ash has given her nod to do the lead role in Robot.

Report also suggests that Ash is impressed immensely with the script but is yet to finalize the dates for the shoot. Shankar’s original choice was Kareena when he decided to do the project with SRK. But then, since it is now planned for a simultaneous release in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu, Ash has turned to be a natural choice.

Let us wait and see what else unfolds…