HE’S THE evergreen bus conductor-turned-film star who is worshipped like a god in his native south India. Now the actor Rajinikanth appears to have a movie budget that befits his megastar status.
The 60-year-old superstar’s latest film, the Tamil-language Endhiran, has a budget of Rs1.65bn ($35m/£22.47m), according to the movie’s official website.
That would make it the most expensive Indian film ever, beating Bollywood’s Hindi-language underwater odyssey Blue, which reportedly cost Rs750m ($16m/£10.29m), and Kites which starred Hrithik Roshan and was said to have been made for `Rs1.25bn ($26.72m/£17.15m).
Shooting for Endhiran, which is due for release later this year, has taken the cast all over the world, from the ancient Inca site of Machu Picchu in Peru to Brazil and the US.
“It seems a very lavish production from what we’ve seen from the stills,” leading film critic Taran Adarsh told reporters.
The science-fiction fantasy, which will be released in Hindi as The Robot and Robo in Telugu, also stars Aishwarya Rai Bachchan.
Rajinikanth plays the dual role of a scientist and a robot he creates that falls in love with Rai’s character.
