2.0 (film)

2.0
Directed by	S. Shankar
Written by	S. Shankar Jeyamohan
Produced by	Subaskaran Allirajah
Starring	Rajinikanth Akshay Kumar Amy Jackson
Cinematography	Nirav Shah
Edited by	Anthony
Music by	A. R. Rahman
Production company	Lyca Productions
Release date	2017 (2017)
Country	India
Languages	Tamil Hindi
Budget	₹350 crore (US$42 million)

2.0 (also known as Enthiran 2) is an upcoming 2017 Indian science fiction film directed by S. Shankar and written by S. Shankar and Jeyamohan. A sequel to Enthiran (2010), the film will feature Rajinikanth reprising the roles of Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti, alongside Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson. Produced by Subaskaran Allirajah of Lyca Productions. The soundtrack album will be composed by A. R. Rahman while the dialogues, cinematography, editing and art direction are handled by Jeyamohan, Nirav Shah, Anthony and T. Muthuraj respectively. The film is scheduled for a 2017 release.

Cast and characters

• Rajinikanth as Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti
• Akshay Kumar as Dr. Richard, a scientist whose "experiment goes wrong and loses his appearance".
• Amy Jackson
• Sudhanshu Pandey as son of Dr. Bohra
• Adil Hussain

Production

Development

The commercial success of Enthiran (2010) prompted the makers of the film to immediately consider making a sequel and by March 2011, the original film's cinematographer, Rathnavelu revealed that initial pre-production work on a second part had begun with the same technical team. S. Shankar, the director of Enthiran, moved on to work on Nanban (2012) and I (2015) and plans to reunite with the same producers as the original was dropped, with Shankar revealing that he was unsure if the film "will happen at all" during an interview in 2014. While finishing the production of I, Shankar drafted the scripts of three more feature films, including that of a sequel to Enthiran.

Pre-production works for the film were reported to have started in June 2015 with Lyca Productions deciding to finance the project. Along with Shankar and Rajinikanth, composer A. R. Rahman and editor Anthony were retained to work on the film from the original, while Jeyamohan was added to the team to help write dialogues. Shankar also began briefing the film's art director T. Muthuraj and VFX supervisor Srinivas Mohan about their involvement in the film. Nirav Shah joined the technical team as a cinematographer in mid 2015 and visited specialist studios in the United States to research filming methods for 3D shoots. Jeyamohan finished work on the script of the film in September 2015 and revealed that the story would be a direct continuation from the 2010 film, with filming only set to start following the completion of Rajinikanth's commitments in Kabali (2016). The original film's dialogue writer, Madhan Karky, helped Jeyamohan on some of the more technical dialogues in the script.

Casting

Shankar held initial discussions with Kamal Haasan, Aamir Khan and then Vikram about portraying a further role, though neither of the two actors signed on to appear in the film. Subsequently the team held talks with Hollywood actor Arnold Schwarzenegger for the role, who agreed to work on the film for a record remuneration. The makers then opted against signing Schwarzenegger, though there have been conflicting reasons regarding this decision. British actress Amy Jackson signed on to work on the film in October 2015 and visited Los Angeles as a part of the team's pre-production work. In late November 2015, Rajinikanth also travelled to Los Angeles to meet the film's producers and complete costume trials and initial motion capture technology work for the venture. After further negotiations with actors including Hrithik Roshan and Neil Nitin Mukesh, the makers signed on Akshay Kumar to portray the role in which Schwarzenegger was initially considered. A press release coinciding with the start of the film's shoot, also revealed that Resul Pookutty would handle sound designing, Legacy Effects would take care of animatronics work and that Mary E. Vogt would design special costumes. Stunt choreographer Kenny Bates and visual effects specialists John Hughes and Walt Jones were also signed to work on the film.

Filming

The Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi, where a football sequence is filmed.

An official launch event was about to held on 12 December 2015, coinciding with Rajinikanth's birthday, but the team chose to avoid publicity as a result of the 2015 South Indian floods. Instead, the team held a low key launch event at the AVM Studios on 7 December with the director and the producers in attendance. Titled 2.0, the film consequently began its first schedule with shooting held on 16 December 2015, at a set erected in the outskirts of Chennai at EVP World. On the first day of shoot, a scene featuring Rajinikanth and several dwarf actors was shot at the erected set, while the team's principal cast and crew also assembled for a photo shoot. The first schedule of the film, consisting of Rajinikanth and Amy Jackson, continued in Chennai until 30 December 2015. The team then worked on a second schedule throughout the middle of January 2016 in Chennai and shot scenes featuring Rajinikanth at Mohan Studios and by Madras Boat Club. Another schedule featuring Akshay Kumar began in Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, New Delhi during March 2016, with a football match sequence being filmed. Some portions of the film will be shot in Morocco.