1.This is a crucial release for Rajinikanth, as his last few films have underperformed at the box office. On the success ratio of 2.0 would depend his future in politics.
2. Rajinikanth returns with his double role of Dr Vaseegaran and Chitthi from Robot which released in 2010. 8 years later he is still at it.
3. 2.0 is dubbed in Hindi and Telugu from the original Hindi. Akshay will speak in his voice in Hindi and Rajinikanth will speak in Tamil. In the rest of the languages, the two actors’ voices will be dubbed.
4. The final playing-time of 2.0 is 2 hours 28 minutes. This makes it much shorter in length than the first Robot film which ran into more than 3 hours. Perhaps, director Shankar has realized that in the 8 years since Robot released audiences have run out of patience.
5. Akshay Kumar doesn’t play the villain to Rajinikanth’s hero. Not really. The larger-than-life hideously made-up prosthetic-pumped-up arch villain is no villain. He is actually a closet environmentalist fighting tooth and nail against ecological venomousness.
6. The original choice for the antagonist’s role was Kamal Haasan which would have been an interesting life-coming-a-full-circle eventuality. At the beginning of their respective careers, Kamal Haasan and Rajinikanth had played hero and villain in the Tamil film Moondru Moodichu. And now at the tail end of their film careers (haven’t they both surrendered to politics?), the roles would have been reversed. Alas, Man proposes Kamal Haasan disposes. Kamal Saab said no to villainy, although the villain in 2.0 is not really a villain.
7. Contrary to reports, no other Bollywood star except Akshay Kumar was offered the anagonist’s role. Names like Hrithik Roshan and Neil Nitin Mukesh were PR plants. The role went straight from Kamal to Akshay with an uneasy stopover at Arnold Schwarzenegger who asked for the kind of money that sent the team staggering back to their roots.
8. Akshay came on board only after he was assured that his role would shape up well. Apparently before his entry, the antagonist’s role was far less substantial. With Akshay on board, an even balance was created between the two main characters.
9. This is Akshay Kumar’s first 3D film, and he would love to show it to his little daughter. Regrettably, his hideous makeup may scare the child. Akshay and wife Twinkle are in two minds as to whether their daughter Nitara should see the film.
10. Akshay has scored two hits in 2018 Pad Man and Gold. He is likely to score a hat trick with 2.0, provided his fans in the North accept him in the freaky get-up.
