Touted to be India’s costliest movie, with superstar Rajinikanth and the ‘Bachchan bahu’ in the lead, director Shankar’s ‘Enthiran’ - The Robot has passed hands from Eros International and Ayngaran International to Sun Pictures. The movie, said to cost Rs 150 crore, has completed three schedules so far, including those in Peru, Goa, and Chennai.
While Eros International had backed out of the project owing to a financial crisis more than a week ago, Ayngaran’s sudden withdrawal from the project has given rise to speculation. While the production house remains tightlipped on the issue, industry sources claim that the movie, for which two songs have been completed, had already exceeded a production cost of Rs 30 crore, and Ayngaran had wanted to tighten its purse strings.
But director Shankar, known for his grand ways, it is learnt, had been insistent on having the movie shot with the original budget that it was planned for. But Ayngaran, which had entered production through ‘Aegan’, was not ready to shell out so much money at a time when the biggest stars in Kollywood have not been able to give hits this year.
While Ayngaran still has many movies in hand, including ‘Peraanmai’ with Jayam Ravi, ‘Villu’ with Vijay, ‘Angadi Theru’, ‘Sarvam’, it has opted out of the Rajini-starrer, which it originally had announced would be a Rs 100-crore film. ‘Enthiran’ has the biggest names in the business, including Rajinikanth, Aishwarya Rai Bachchan, A R Rahman and Shankar. It will be released simultaneously in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu by 2009-end.
For Sun Pictures, which has now officially announced that it will produce the movie, this is the first direct production venture. It has acquired the movies of other production houses like ‘Kadhalil Vizhundhen’, ‘Siva Manasula Sakthi’ and ‘Thenavattu.’
While the Rajini starrer has shifted hands, Kamal Haasan’s ‘Marmayogi’ has also been shelved due to financial constraints. And big corporates in the State, including Pyramid Saimira, are said to be facing financial constraints, thus delaying the shoot of many movies.
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