Indian sci-fi movie 2.0 starring Rajinikanth and Akshay Kumar in the lead roles has been building quite a steady buzz despite the lack of any official still or trailer released from the film. After dallying around a release date, several sources are reporting that the producers have finally settled for releasing the movie on Apr 14, 2018, on the auspicious occasion of the Tamil New Year.
The film’s release was pushed back multiple times. It was earlier supposed to release on Oct 2017 before being delayed to Jan 25, 2018 due to extensive visual effects work. It was then rumored that the movie would be unable to make this release date, once again due to visual effects delays, pushing the movie towards an Apr 2018 release. The exact date in April was uncertain until now. Moreover, it recently came to light that a popular visual effects studio in the US, whose services were sought by he film’s producers Lyca Productions, defaulted in meeting their deadlines for delivering the movie’s visual effects shots on time which led to the release date getting pushed back. The film-makers have apparently been scrambling since then to get the effects ready on time, distributing the 1000 or so VFX shots among different companies to meet the intended release date.
Marketing on the movie in the meanwhile has been sporadically building up momentum with key releases. Two behind the scenes videos have been released so far along with a barrage of posters featuring the titular characters in the lead roles. The movie’s biggest marketing push though came through a music launch that took place in Dubai during Oct 2017, around the time of the movie’s originally planned release date. Composer A. R. Rahman has been hard at work on the movie’s soundtrack which was released as part of the music launch. A teaser for the movie is rumored to be released in Malaysia tomorrow following which, it could (ideally should) end up online although I’d advise take this rumor with a pinch of salt.
A sequel to the highly successful 2010 South Indian flick Enthiran a.k.a. Robot, 2.0 features Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar essaying a negative role opposite South Indian superstar Rajinikanth. Amy Jackson stars as well in an undisclosed role. The original movie went on to become the highest grossing movie of its time and the sequel is already making waves with a rumored production budget of Rs. 400 crores (around $65 – $70 million) making it the most expensive Indian production ever undertaken. We’ll be there to bring you up to speed as soon as the first trailer hits the web.
Update: We expressed some skepticism about the teaser arriving today and it now looks like those doubts have been confirmed. The Indian Express is reporting that the teaser won’t be arriving on the Star Night event to be held in Malaysia but will instead launch some time in February in Hyderabad following a heavy promotional build-up. Alas, it was too good to be true.