Mostly, large-scale Bollywood films with lots of VFX or animation to boast of have a lot of foreign elements in them like foreign locales, foreign technical personnel, foreign visual effects (VFX) technology and VFX artists.
But, Rajinikanth’s Robot 2.0 is an entirely Indian film. A big-budget film with a difference, it is shot entirely in India, all technical heads are Indians as is most of the VFX technology used in the film and so also the VFX artists.
Slated to be the most expensive Indian film ever made and poised for an October release in seven languages (including Japanese, Korean and Mandarin), this Rs 350-crore film will be a truly Make in India themed movie, its makers have said.
Make in India is one of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s key policy initiatives that seeks to encourage manufacturing in India.
It is being rumoured that the PM had had a word with Rajinikanth a few months ago when work on Robot had just begun and had suggested that the much-anticipated film can/should promote the Make in India theme.
Raju Mahalingam, COO, Lyca Productions, makers of Robot 2.0 has revealed that the film has been entirely shot in Delhi and Chennai. He further said that though as a group, they were UK-based, but it was decided to shoot everything in India this time.
People keeping track of the film know that the climax of the film was shot at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi while the rest at the EVP film city in Chennai.
The attempt to give a futuristic feel to the movie has resulted in high production costs but the quality of filming will make many Indian cinemas shift to 3D screens. Mostly, films are shot in 2D and then converted to 3D. This movie is shot entirely using 3D techniques. This is being done for the first time in India,” Mahalingam revealed.
Animatronics technology and use of helicams to show action scenes between Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar will be among the visual high points of the movie, Mahalingam added.
At this point, it would be interesting to note that another film of Akshay Kumar, who plays the villain in Robot 2.0, is slated for release this year. This film titled Toilet: Ek Prem Katha has also been inspired by another high-profile scheme announced by the Prime Minister that of Swachh Bharat. The film releases in August
