Akshay Kumar's role in '2.0' was first offered to Arnold Schwarzenegger, reveals director Shankar
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"We had thought of casting Arnold. We had talked and allotted dates also. But somehow things did not work out," Shankar said during an interview.
With just a few days left before Rajinikanth's mammoth '2.0' hits the screens, the excitement to watch Rajini and Akshay Kumar in a completely new avatar is super high. Akshay, in his debut appearance in Tamil cinema, plays the antagonist and his look- from what people have seen in the trailer- has already created a lot of buzz.
Interestingly, Akshay was not the first choice for the role. Director Shankar, in an interview to a news agency, has revealed that Hollywood star Arnold Schwarzenegger was his first choice for the antagonist's role.
"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 at a press conference in Mumbai. The director said 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," the director said.
Shankar is confident that the film would connect with everyone as it has an international theme. The technology, he said, was better than the previous film and it was the reason they decided to title the film '2.0'.
Rajinikanth will be back in the role of 'Chitti' in the second instalment of the mega-hit 'Robot', which is slated to be released on November 29.