Casting

Apart from the original decided casting of Rajnikanth in the lead role, Shankar as director and A. R. Rahman as the music composer, the rest of the cast is expected to be named within the next six months. Several heroines were approached to essay the lead female role with Aishwarya Rai,[16] Priyanka Chopra,[17] Deepika Padukone,[18] Asin Thottumkal,[19] Trisha Krishnan,[20] Shriya Saran[20] and Nayanthara[21] being linked with the role and furthermore, Amitabh Bachchan[22] was considered for a further lead role. In late January 2008, Aishwarya Rai was announced as the heroine of the project, and she later confirmed her appearance in the film to the news channel, Aaj Tak. The shoot of the film is likely to start in the summer of 2008, with Robot becoming the most expensive film ever made in India.[23]

Most recently, Sabu Cyril was signed up as the art director, Sujatha bagged the chance to become the dialogue writer while Nirav Shah has taken up the post of the cinematographer, after K. V. Anand, Manikandan and Ravi K. Chandran had opted out

Cast and Crew

Robot
Directed by S. Shankar
Produced by Karunamoorthy
Kishore Lulla
Written by Sujatha
S. Shankar
Starring Rajnikanth
Aishwarya Rai
Music by A. R. Rahman
Cinematography Nirav Shah
Distributed by Ayngaran International
Eros Multimedia
Release date(s) Flag of India TBA
Country India
Language Tamil
Budget 120 crores

Development

After completing Nayak: The Real Hero in 2001, Shankar announced a project with Kamal Haasan and Preity Zinta titled Robo,[1] to be produced by the now-defunct production company Media Dreams.[2][3][4] Despite, announcing the project, due to a lack of backing the project was cancelled and Shankar began work on Boys. In 2005, Shankar made another project, Anniyan, this was mistaken to be the renamed title for Robot.[5]

After a stupendous response from his previous project, Sivaji: The Boss, there were speculations regarding Shankar's next film. However Shankar stated that he was going to be involved with his production house, S Pictures for 3 months.[6] Several websites claimed that he was set to take his maiden Telugu language film with Chiranjeevi,[7] while others claimed that it was set to be with Mahesh Babu.[8] Ajith Kumar was also considered for the film and several sources reported this news as confirmed but Kumar claimed that he wasn't yet approached.[9]

On July 27th 2007, Shahrukh Khan was signed on to be the male lead of Robot and also the producer of the film.[10] An actress from South India, Divya Spandana, approached Shankar for a role but was rejected.[11]

However, in October 2007, Shah Rukh Khan and Shankar officially called off the project. Khan commented that the script was "half-baked" and "dull" in comparison to his other films at the time. Shankar commented that Rajnikanth had commented on Shankar being a "trusted" and "excellent" script writer. Thus the two weren't able to compromise on one another opinions.[12]

After further indications that either Ajith Kumar and Aamir Khan were set to sign up for the film, reports surfaced in early January 2008, that Rajnikanth has been roped in for the project

Robot

Robot is a forthcoming science-fiction film to be directed by S. Shankar, who with Robot, will direct his tenth feature film. Despite several rumours regarding the lead actors, Kollywood star Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai have been formally announced to portray the title role. The film costing 120 crores is set to contest with Kamal Haasan's recently announced film, Marmayogi, in a race to be India's most expensive film to date.