Development In 1996, following the release of
Indian,
S. Shankar approached and pitched three storylines to
Rajinikanth to consider for his next venture. This included scripts which would later become
Sivaji: The Boss (2007),
Enthiran (2010) and
I (2015). Rajinikanth was sceptical and refused all three scripts at the time. Following the completion of his first directorial venture in Hindi,
Nayak (2001), Shankar announced his next project,
Robot, which was to feature
Kamal Haasan and
Preity Zinta. The film was to be produced by the now-defunct company
Media Dreams, a division of
Pentamedia Graphics. The film was reported to be a futuristic
techno-thriller set in Chennai in around 2200 or 3000. Despite the completion of a photoshoot featuring Haasan and Zinta, Shankar consequently started work on
Boys (2003). but was later revealed as
Anniyan (2005). One month post the release of
Sivaji: The Boss in June 2007, he approached
Shah Rukh Khan for the lead in
Robot. Shankar had cast
Priyanka Chopra in the lead opposite him. Khan was about to produce it under his own banner,
Red Chillies Entertainment, but in October the same year the project was officially aborted due to creative differences between him and Shankar. The project was revived in January 2008 with
Eros International and the
London-based production company
Ayngaran International willing to produce the film. In December 2008, Eros International withdrew from funding the project after financial difficulties caused by the box-office failure of
Drona (2008) and
Yuvvraaj (2008), with the subsequent departure of Ayngaran International, which struggled during the
2008 financial crisis. The film's production and release rights were sold to
Sun Pictures.
Cast and crew In January 2008, Rajinikanth accepted the lead role in the film for a salary of 450 million (
Indian rupees). Shankar rewrote the original script to suit Rajinikanth's acting style. Although
Aishwarya Rai Bachchan was Shankar's original choice for the female lead in 2001, she declined it owing to a busy schedule and was replaced by Zinta. When Shankar revived the project with Rajinikanth,
Shriya Saran and Rai, who was ultimately selected and paid 60 million. Rai's voice was dubbed by
Savitha Reddy. Several actors were considered for the role of Professor Bohra, including
Amitabh Bachchan,
J. D. Chakravarthy,
Sathyaraj and British actor
Ben Kingsley, Dubbing for Denzongpa was provided by Kadhir. Comedians
Santhanam and
Karunas were cast to portray Vaseegaran's assistants Siva and Ravi respectively. The soundtrack album and background score were composed by A. R. Rahman.
Vairamuthu,
Pa. Vijay and Madhan Karky authored the lyrics for the songs.
Manoj Bharathiraja was signed on to be an assistant director after he approached Shankar and helped him find the location for Rajinikanth's house in the film. Arul and Manoj, uncredited, worked as body doubles for both the Vaseegaran and Chitti characters. Also working as assistant directors were
Atlee, Shree and Karthik G. Krish.
Sabu Cyril, in addition to being the film's art director, made a guest appearance as Shah, an interpreter between Bohra and the terrorist organisation.
R. Rathnavelu was hired as the cinematographer after
Ravi K. Chandran,
Nirav Shah and
Tirru were considered.
Anthony was the film's editor.
Yuen Woo-ping, known for his work in
The Matrix trilogy and the
Kill Bill films, was selected to be the stunt co-ordinator, while
Legacy Effects, a visual effects studio based in the United States, were in charge of the prosthetic make-up and animatronics in the film. The film's
subtitle captioning was done by Rekha Haricharan.
Costume design Manish Malhotra and Mary E. Vogt were chosen to design the film's costumes. Fifty-seven costumes were used for Rai, including a "Mexican tribal" look that she sported during the filming of the "
Kilimanjaro" segment. According to make-up artist
Banu, no prosthetics were used for Rajinikanth to avoid bothering him by withholding his time on set. Additional make-up was by Vance Hartwell, an employee of Legacy Effects. The visual appearance of Chitti was based on the
G.I. Joe action figures. For Chitti's "villain robot" look, its hair was spiked and brown coloured lenses were used for its eyes, whereas for its "good robot" look, green coloured lenses were used. while its leather jacket was designed by Vogt.
Principal photography For Sabu Cyril's sets, Shankar required approximately twice as much studio floor space as for his previous film. After rejecting
Ramoji Film City for technical reasons,
Enthiran producer,
Kalanithi Maran, took six months to set up three air-conditioned studio floors on land in
Perungudi owned by Sun TV Network. Filming began on 15 February 2008 at
AVM Studios in Chennai. They visited Austria, Germany, Peru, Brazil and Argentina, looking for a backdrop to shoot the "Kilimanjaro" and "Kadhal Anukkal" segments, eventually deciding on Peru and Brazil. It was choreographed by
Raju Sundaram and supervised by Fernando Astete, director of the Machu Picchu archaeological park. "Kadhal Anukkal" was filmed in
Lençóis Maranhenses National Park in northeastern Brazil. The filming for Chitti's introduction to the international robotics conference was completed in December 2008 at
Sri Sivasubramaniya Nadar College of Engineering and
Vellore Institute of Technology, where more than 400 students were used as extras. Further footage was shot over five days at the
Ennore Port on the
Mitsui O.S.K. Lines car carrier,
Neptune Ace. An action sequence where Chitti saves Sana from thugs was filmed in
Lonavala, under the supervision of the action choreographer
Peter Hein. Scenes featuring Rajinikanth as Chitti were captured over five days at the
Perungudi Dump Yard in Chennai. Sabu Cyril told Uma Kannan of
The New Indian Express that the sets for the climax sequence, which was filmed at
Mayajaal, consisted of a tar road and glass buildings which rose to , and that
aluminium composite panels, reported to have cost 50 million, were also used to design the sets. The set for "Arima Arima", a sequence choreographed by
Prabhu Deva, Junior artists were employed by Rathnavelu to wear masks of Rajinikanth. For the sequence entitled "Irumbile Oru Irudhaiyam", choreographed by
Remo D'Souza and featuring Rai and Rajinikanth as Chitti, Principal photography ended on 7 July 2010.
Visual effects Impressed with the film's script,
V. Srinivas Mohan became the visual effects supervisor in December 2007. He asked Shankar to increase the filming schedules by six months to include pre-production requirements. Both Mohan and Shankar visited several visual effects companies, including the New Zealand–based
Weta Digital and the United States–based
Industrial Light & Magic,
Cafe FX and
Tippett Studio before partnering with Legacy Effects. The original Eros-Ayngaran visual effects budget was 700 million, but after Sun Pictures took over production, it was significantly reduced to 200 million. As a result, the visual effects team had to omit and alter some sequences, making Chitti wear sunglasses for most of the film to reduce the cost and difficulty of animating his eyes. After a series of
previsualisation tests, including a scene in which Chitti jumps on a train to save Sana, Mohan eventually decided to use the technique in 40 out of the 60 visual effects scenes featured in the film, Further previsualisation supervision was conducted by P. C. Sanath of Firefly Creative Studios, a visual effects company based in
Hyderabad.
3D storyboards were constructed using 3D animation programs for every scene in the film and were shot from different angles. Legacy Effects and the Hong Kong–based visual effects companies Kinomotive Studios and Menfond Electronics took responsibility for the film's
CGI work. The robot Chitti featured in the film was a mannequin made by a Legacy Effects team of 100 technicians in Los Angeles. For every robotic mannequin used, six puppeteers were employed to control the mannequin's movements. == Themes and influences ==