Endhiran’s blazing climax

The shooting of Shankar’s ‘Endhiran’ is fast approaching its climax! Currently the team is busy in putting its heart and sweat into the making of the movie’s climax. Being the significant part of the movie, the scene features a fire bursting out of a scientist’s laboratory. This is said to be only a 4-min scene, however an elaborate set has been erected in the city’s Prasad Studios. The production team has specially flown down few Hollywood visual effects companies to supervise this fire scene. This expertise will decide as to how and where special effects would be applicable while editing later. Now, did you know that this is something new and done for the first time in our Indian cinema? Well, this method was earlier followed by a famous American filmmaker George Lucas in several Hollywood flicks of his times. Shankar had recently highlighted the importance of special effects and graphics in movies. A dedicated man he is, our Superstar has insisted on staying on the sets, to see the shooting; although he has no role to play in it. Hmm, now if such interesting things are happening on the sets, one would be really thrilled to experience the happenings live! Right?

Shankar speaks on Endhiran!

Shankar has given an interview to a Tamil daily where he has said: “ Endhiran is beyond imagination, with much grandeur and richness.

You can see the effort which is to be taken for 10 films in this one film. Rajni is such an amazing hero. Just words can’t describe his efforts.”

On Rajini’s look in the film, Shankar says “Sivaji was just a sample of how young the star can look. In Endhiran he will look even younger. For his make up things, we went to America and searched in many places but nothing came right. Then we tried in India and it worked out perfectly for the character he plays. Normally make-up, Kamal will only take efforts for make up is the public opinion. But in this film Rajni has taken amazing efforts as he waited patiently for two three hours to put up the make-up.”

On Aiswarya Rai- Rajinikanth screen combination, Shankar says: “There was terrific chemistry between them, as she plays a medical student. Shankar added that the film has “never before seen special effects and graphics.” They have used a technique called “Animatronics” the use of electronics and robotics in mechanised puppets (Robos) to make them appear to be alive.

Soundarya as a specialist in ‘Endhiran’

Preparing for the final leg of the shoot director Shankar said that two songs are left to be canned abroad. “The first science-fiction film in Tamil will deal with the good and bad effects of robots in the backdrop of Indian culture”, said the director. Our superstar also confirmed it saying that more than 80%of the film’s shoot is over, during the ‘Eeram’ audio launch. Sources close to the production house says that Sun TV is planning to release the film by April 2010. The reason behind the delay is the usage of EFX, CG and 3D animation techniques unlike another Tamil movie. They have used nearly two lakhs and fifty thousand frames for these special effects! As all these works can’t be finished in Chennai alone, few important scenes have been handed over to a company in Canada. It’s heard that this particular firm has handled several Hollywood movies. The focal information is that our hero Superstar’s daughter Soundarya is an important member in the team of Endhiran’s Digital experts’ team. The girl is always very much involved in boosting up her dad’s image… Great!

Rajini against Rajinis

“Endhiran” has been making headlines ever since it’s shooting commenced. Some of the big names of Indian cine industry including gorgeous Aishwarya Rai are coming together for this one. Recently the shooting for a fight scene of the film was taking place in Chennai in the set that was erected by one of India’s popular art directors Sabu Cyril. According to the sources, the stunt was between superstar Rajinikanth and 100 other robots that look like him. Fight master Peter Heinz composed this stunt sequence along with few foreign fight masters. Now another interesting tittle-tattle is that many Hollywood companies are roped in for the visual effects (VFX) of the film. Hollywood companies like ILM, Tippet, Cafe EFX; and Hong Kong companies like Centro and Menfond are involved in this mega-budget project. We say- Cooooool...

Robot Rajini in Chennai now

The Sirucheri SIPCOT industrial estate is the area in which our robot Rajini is right now! The team of Shankar’s ‘Endhiran’ is working busily in the location to complete an important scene of the film out there. We hear that Shankar has brought in an extremely strange Volvo bus in to the sets. Birdies say that the director has transformed a normal Volvo bus into a satellite remote sensing lab. This makeover process of the bus has cost a whooping 50 lakhs! A scene in which a morph gang attacks the robot Rajini, who is inside this satellite remote sensing lab, is being filmed. The blow of the news is that our superstar is not in the shooting spot at all. It’s a stunt artist who is masked as the robot Rajini. Using a dupe is not a big deal as our Superstar is a real-time hero. What say people?

Shankar’s tech-adviser for ‘Endhiran’

Director Shankar appointed a youth who has done his Doctorate in robotic-technology, for assisting him in ‘Endhiran’ as the technological adviser. The youth who is always noticed as a ball-of-energy along with his laptop is the son of a bigwig. This young talent is none other than Karkhi Vairamuthu! As we all know lyricist Vairamuthu has two sons. The eldest son Kabilan is a software engineer, while the younger son Karkhi has entered cine field to become like his father. As of now ‘Ilamai Idho Idho’, ‘Kanden Kadhalai’, ‘Endhiran’ are the projects in which Karkhi has penned lyrics. Karkhi, who has done Doctorate from Australia, is not just the Lyricist and technological adviser of ‘Endhiran’, but also Shankar’s associate director! When we asked if he will touch greater heights than his dad, Karkhi said with a smart smile, “Dad is like a tall mountain I’m at his base. I’m just starting it all.” Though he is all-time busy as a lyricist, assistant director and tech-adviser, Karkhi is working as a scientist in Chennai Anna University. Karkhi seems to prove that, ‘Intelligence is in the head, not in the age’. Let’s give it up for this man guys!