making of
Robot it is confirmed that the movie won’t
go on floors by April-May, the start will
be postponed at least until May. This is due
to the script and dialogue works that have
to be completed in the void created by Sujatha’s
absence. It might be fair enough to estimate
that the movie will not take off until after
June.
While this might not look to be of great significance
given that Rajini has made himself available
without any other commitments after Kuselan,
the real problem is going to b with the dates
of Aishwarya Rai. She is currently at the
peak of her powers with offers flooding her
and it is pretty well known that she has granted
her dates to Mani Ratnam’s next project
which will have Abhishek with her once again
after Guru. This film will mark the return
of Mani Ratnam to the small, charming romance.
Aishwarya has reportedly given dates up until
June for the proposed shoots of Robot and
plans to join the sets of Mani’s film
immediately after that. Now, this delay will
throw all her plans into turmoil. Though Mani
might understand the situation that Robot
is in, and being a close friend of Rajini
might try to work out some kind of arrangement,
that might not be of great help because even
Abhishek is in no position to make any adjustments.
He is currently in the US shooting for Karan
Johar’s production Dostana. Also, his
movies such as Drona and Dilli 6 are in various
stages of production.
So, the casting and planning of Robot is
in a spot now. Various suggestions and ideas
are doing the rounds that include shooting
all of Rajini’s solo portions and
fights first and scheduling Aishwarya’s
shoots for later. But only Shankar, the
one man who knows fully the requirements
of Robot can take a decision on this. Meanwhile,
there have been some meaningless rumors
that have started floating around saying
that Aishwarya Rai has opted out of Robot.
Now, this is blasphemous, at least at this
stage. Aishwarya’s casting was a carefully
made decision after much thought from both
sides and a mere two month delay will not
undo that. If Aishwarya has opted out of
any movie, it is Pan Nalin’s Buddha,
where she was cast as Yashodhara.
With the current troubles Robot needs all
the support that it can get, being Tamil
cinema’s biggest dream yet. We have
to be patient because the movie is a coming
together of all that is big and mighty in
Indian cinema- Superstar, Shankar, Eros,
Ayngaran and Aishwarya-such combinations
are not very easy to handle. Let’s
hope everything is sorted out and Robot
gets a free run until completion - even
if it means a couple of months or even more
of a delay. Good things never happen in
a hurry.
|
