Aishwarya Rai

Aishwarya Rai Bachchan is playing a lead role in ‘Endhiran’, initially titled ‘Robot’, along with Rajinikanth.

With a budget of Rs 120 crore, the film is said to be the costliest Indian film.

‘Endhiran’ is a science fiction film and is directed by S Shankar.

Shankar had previously worked with Rajinikanth in the superhit ‘Sivaji: The Boss’.

The music is by AR Rahman.

The film is being produced by Kalanidhi Maran.

Shankar initially chose Shah Rukh Khan for the lead role, but apparantly things didn’t work out.

There were rumours of Shankar signing Aamir Khan for the film.

For the female lead Priyanka Chopra, Deepika Padukone, Asin Thottumkal, Trisha Krishnan, Shriya Saran, Priyamani and Nayanthara were in contention.

But the role went to Ash who had previously worked with Shankar in ‘Jeans’.

Chinese stunt coordinator Woo-ping Yuen has been hired to supervise the action stunts in the film.

While Stan Winston Studios will take care of the animatronics.

The shooting locations include the historic Machu Picchu in Peru.

Other segments were shot in the United States and Brazil.

A 10-day filming was completed in Goa.

The original title ‘Robot’ couldn’t be retained because the Tamil Nadu government provides tax exemption to films with Tamil titles. Eros International which was to produce the film backed off and Sun Pictures bought the rights for the film.