Saturday, December 27, 2008

Aishwarya, Rajnikanth in Vellore for Endhiran


Actors Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan arrived here on Christmas day, all set for the shooting of the mega-budget Tamil film Endhiran being produced by Sun Pictures. Scenes for the film will be shot for five days, till December 29, at the Technology Tower in the Vellore Institute of Technology (VIT). Security is so tight that even VIT staff are not being allowed to catch a glimpse of the superstars. VIT students are away on Christmas vacation.The Endhiran film would be shot in India, and a major part of it in Chennai, Shooting would continue till August 2009.

Endhiran (The Robot) has been in the news ever since original producers Ayngaran International (AI) launched it a few months ago. However, subsequent to the global economy meltdown, AI wanted the film's director Shankar to scale down the budget from Rs. 120 crore. AI itself had spent Rs. 30 crore for shooting two songs in North America, Peru and other foreign locations. For an action scene in Goa, AI, at the insistence of the director, was forced to buy three new luxury cars - a Mercedes Benz , a BMW and an Audi - costing nearly Rs 3 crore. The Mercedes Benz was blown up for an action scene. AI found this was too much to take and eventually wriggled out of the project.

For Kalanidhi Maran, chairman and managing director, Sun TV Network, Endhiran could be a huge gamble considering his experience in bankrolling movies is limited to Kadhalil Vizhunthen and Tenavattu. Like Endhiran, both pictures saw the entry of Sun Pictures midway.

Endhiran, set to cost a whopping Rs. 165 crore movie on a first-copy basis, is the highest budgeted Indian film till date. Aishwarya Bachchan now becomes India's highest paid heroine. She was signed for Rs. 6 crore.

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