Shankar introduces Animatronics in India

Animatronics is the use of electronics and robotics in mechanised puppets to make them appear to be alive this technology is popularly used in Hollywood flicks.You would’ve witnessed such grandiloquent figures of Dinosaurs in Jurassic park and moving toy's in Small soldiers, other gigantic creatures like King Kong over the films they’re all churned out with the help ‘Animatronics’.

So, for the first time it would be utilized over herein Tamil film industry for Rajnikanth starrer ‘Endhiran’. Director Shankar interacting with media channels has revealed about this technology when he was questioned about what’s so special with ‘Endhiran’.He didn’t want to speak much about the scenes where he has applied this technology, but he makes sure none of such sequences have been lifted from Hollywood films.

EERAM another feather to S pictures cap

Sabu Cyril on a roll

Noted art director Sabu Cyril is on a roll. The set he has put for Shankar-directed Endhiran starring superstar Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan has become a major tourist attraction.

The set for the climax scene, erected behind an entertainment complex on the ECR near Chennai, is reported to have cost around Rs 5 crore. It is definitely the most expensive set put up for a Tamil film. The sequence shot on this expensive set will have Rajinikanth, who plays a scientist, fighting with 100 and more robots which are his look-alikes!
Sabu Cyril has revolutionised the concept of an art director in Indian cinema. Today, he is one of the busiest production designers (as Hollywood would call him) in Indian cinema.

Currently, Sabu is the art director for three Bollywood films and Endhiran is his first film in Tamil in five years, after Shankar’s Anniyan.

Says Sabu, “I’m doing more work in Bollywood because the budgets are bigger there which gives you room to experiment. But as far as Endhiran is concerned, it is close to my heart as it is my 100th film as an art director. I’ve been fascinated by the project ever since director Shankar narrated the script. I had originally signed up for the project 10 years ago, when Shankar was planning to do it with Kamal Haasan.

We had even done a photo shoot then. Later, SRK was supposed to do it, but that too did not work out. Now, Rajinikanth is doing it and he is the right choice.”

Sabu has always been innovative and uses new materials for constructing film sets. He had remarked in an earlier interview that the perception of an art director had changed from being seen more like a carpenter who does the sets to wizards who give life to the film. Today, with the art director being consulted on everything from the colour scheme to the lead actor’s wardrobe, he had also requested that the term art directors be replaced with their Hollywood equivalent, production designers.

In Endhiran, Sabu is using aluminum composite panel (ACP) for creating the sets. “Endhiran is the first film in India to use ACP to create eco-friendly sets, which unlike wood, can be recycled and cost only a third of the price of wood,” says Sabu and adds, “And structure wise, we have used scaffolding as support system.”

Today, directors like Mani Ratnam, Shankar, Priyadarsan, Farah Khan and actors like Shah Rukh Khan want only Sabu for their films, but he just does not have the dates.

“I love doing sci-fi as we have to do it on a limited budget, but at the same time, come up with sets that compete with Hollywood. I’ll prove with Endhiran, the biggest challenge in my life, that we are on par with the best in the world,” he signs off.

AR Rahman to use continuum fingerboard for Endhiran

If you have listened to Rehna Tu in Delhi 6, you cannot miss the final piece in the song, a peculiar type of instrumentation. Are you still wondering about the instrument that was used? It is in fact the Continuum fingerboard. This is a touch screen keyboard and is being used only by the rarest of rare music composers.

AR Rahman has tried the usage of this novel instrument in Delhi 6 and happy with the results he is now using this Continuum fingerboard for Endhiran. But the news here is that it not for a single song but for the whole movie.

With this novel concept there is no doubt the songs will top the charts.

‘Karate’ Ramesh for Endhiran

VELLORE: Here is an interesting snippet for the fans of Superstar Rajnikanth on his forthcoming movie Endiran. While the mega movie remains a closed book, as the makers are keeping the production a guarded secret, interesting incidences connected with the movie do keep the fans thrilled.

Endiran somehow seems to be having links with Vellore and it may be recalled that some sequences of this Rajnikanth-Aishwarya starrer were shot in the picturesque campus of the VIT University here in January this year. Now a stunt artist from here has worked for the movie recently to coach the heroine in martial arts.

‘It was a memorable experience’ recalled ‘Karate’ Ramesh, who runs Japan Shito-Ryu karate school here for over 30 years, which is affiliated to the World Karate Federation.

He said that a couple of weeks back he had received a phone call from Peter Hein, the stunt master for Endiran, offering him to coach for Aishwarya Rai, the basics of karate.

‘I readily agreed because it is a lifetime offer to work in the mega movie’ Ramesh noted. In the movie, the heroine learns karate from the hero. ‘While the hero Rajnikanth already knows these steps, I had to coach the heroine and her friends’ Ramesh claimed.

In addition, Ramesh also appears in the climax fight scene as a Black Cat commando member. According to him Aishwarya was a quick learner and without much rehearsal she was able to repeat the karate movements.

He has already acted for a Manirathnam movie Iruvar (1997) in which Aishwarya was the heroine, where he duped for Mohanlal in some fight sequences.

‘I used to watch Aishwarya Rai from a distance in that movie. But now I had the opportunity to coach her for Endiran’ Ramesh added showing a photograph he has taken with her after the shooting.

Interestingly Ramesh is the only qualified karate champion and a master in the art among the 600 plus stunt artists at the tamil tinsel industry and the natural choice was to get him booked for Endiran.

He had taken 200 of his ‘black-belt’ students from his school to take part in a fight sequence for the Madhavan starrer Arya last year.

Ramesh began his career as a cine artist when he made a debut as a hero in a Tamil movie Neerupootha Neruppu which turned out to be a flop, following which he took up a career as a stunt artist.

So far he has acted in over 400 movies made in South India since 1986 with almost all the leading heroes of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada and Malayalam languages.

Shooting closes for annual exams

Here's a filmmaker and producer who completely understand the diversion that a film shooting can cause in a village. Director Thamira and producer Shankar, who are doing the film ‘Rettaisuzhi’, have almost completed shoot for the film. Shot in an around Tirunelveli, the film also features 25 young children.

Despite over 75 percent of the film being complete, shooting for the film has been stopped. This is because the crew has felt that it is the season for exams and shooting at that time would be a distraction for the students.

‘Rettaisuzhi’ features directors Bharathiraaja, Balachandar and Azhagam Perumal playing important roles.