The producers of Rajinikanth-Aishwarya Rai starrer in the direction of Shankar – Robot (Enthiren in Tamil) – stated that they had not sold the Telugu rights of the movie so far to anyone in Tollywood.
The SUN TV Pictures CEO’s remarks created a flutter in the industry circles here, as prominent distributor and producer Chadalawada Srinivas had already claimed that he had bagged the rights through his production house for Rs 30 crore.
In this backdrop, the Telugu rights claimants maintained that they had paid a token advance to Sun Pictures already, and that the settlement was expected to be reached in principle in a few days. “At this juncture, we found no answer from them (The Sun),” Chadalawada Srinivas maintained.
We have to wait and see who would bag the rights. There are doubts lingering in the industry whether Robot has the stamina to sell for Rs 30 crore, the figure as was insisted by the Sun Pictures.
It may be noted here that Shivaji, the earlier Rajini-Shankar film, was sold in Tollywood to Bellamkonda Suresh, for below Rs 20 crore. Over all, Shivaji was made with a Rs 85 crore budget, and it could collect Rs 400 crore worldwide. Coming to the present venture of Rs 170-crore Rajini-Aish combo, releasing in three versions, the trade pundits are sceptical of the miracle repeating with India still in the grip of economic crisis.