Akshay Kumar has been garnering much appreciation for his never-seen-before avatar as cellphone-hating mutant scientist ever since the trailer of 2.0 released. But did you know that Rajinikanth was earlier supposed to fight veteran Hollywood action star Arnold Schwarzenegger instead of Akshay?
During a press conference in Mumbai, film's director S Shankar revealed that Arnold was his first choice for the role of anti-hero in 2.0. He also said that the film's team had approached Schwarzenegger for the role and even the dates were locked but the collaboration couldn't be finalised because of contractual issues.
"We had thought of casting Arnold. We had talked and allotted dates also. But somehow things did not work out as the contracts of Hollywood and India are contradictory. So we thought of looking at a good cast from the Indian film industry," Shankar said.
Talking about how Akshay came aboard, he said while they were on the search for casting the antagonist for 2.0, Lyca (producers of 2.0) and Akshay were in talks for a remake of a film called Kathi in Hindi.
"Everyone told me to consider Akshay and I also thought it would be nice. I narrated the story to him and he said yes," Shankar added.
At USD 75 million, 2.0 is more expensive than several successful Hollywood VFX classics. Deadpool (2016) had originally cost only USD 58 million. Even X-Men (2000) was made in USD 75 million and Batman (1989) in USD 35 million.
The film also features Adil Hussain, Sudhanshu Pandey and Amy Jackson in key roles. AR Rahman has composed the music for the film.
2.0 has, however, been a long time coming. The film, which was originally set to arrive in cinemas last year on Diwali, was later pushed to a December 2017 debut. It was once again moved a month further to January 2018, in order to allow more time for post-production. After too much rescheduling, the Rajinikanth-Akshay Kumar starrer now has an official releasing date all ready for November 29.
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