Aishwarya Rai-Bachchan, finally, has a blockbuster outside of her familiar Bollywood territory in Endhiran - The Robot. The Shankar-directed film that has Aishwarya Rai playing lead opposite superstar Rajnikanth continues to break collection records all over India and is set to become the highest-grossing Indian film ever. Endhiran (Robo and Robot in its Telugu and Hindi dubbed versions, respectively) is important in the glorious career of Rajnikanth - who has remained a superstar in the southern parts of India for about three decades - in that it has transcended barriers and helped him emerge as a true pan-India box office force with a global pull among the Indian diaspora, as reflected in the mind-boggling collections both home and abroad.
Interestingly, Endhiran's huge commercial success has worked as a parallel in reverse for Aishwarya Rai. Before Endhiran happened, the supermodel-turned-Bollywood diva had not been able to translate her international star appeal to handsome box office returns in the south of India, where the film industry pans out in the languages of four states: Tamil, Telugu, Malayalam and Kannada.
Aishwarya and Failures in Tamil
Aishwarya Rai made her debut opposite Mohanlal in Mani Ratnam's classic Iruvar in 1997. The film, that's considered by many critics as Mani Ratnam's best work was a resounding commercial flop, a rarity for the ace filmmaker. Aishwarya followed it up with Jeans, helmed by Endhiran director Shankar. The film was tipped to be a comeback vehicle for its struggling lead actor Prashanth. Despite a chartbuster soundtrack and Shankar's peaking stature after his successful Indian with Kamal Haasan, Jeans ended up doing average business.
The actress was able to move past the bad start in the south and enter the big league in Bollywood, with blockbusters like Hum Dil De Chuke Sanam, Devdas, Dhoom 2, Guru and Jodhaa Akbar. It was during her initial years in Hindi cinema that Aishwarya Rai returned to Tamil with Rajiv Menon's Kandukondein Kandukondein that also starred Mammootty, Ajith, Tabu and Abbas. The film won critical acclaim but fell short of a certified superhit status, probably forcing Aishwarya into a longer break from the south. She returned, again, in a Mani Ratnam film: the massively hyped bilingual Raavan (Raavanan in Tamil). The modern-day take on the epic Ramayana, the film - despite having the likes of Abhishek Bachchan and Vikram in the cast and music by A R Rahman - failed, with the Hindi version getting declared a box office disaster on day one.
Endhiran Collections Mark Aishwarya's Blockbuster Return
The high-on-hype Rajnikanth-starrer is the story of a scientist (Rajnikanth) who creates a lookalike humanoid robot (again played by Rajnikanth) that goes rogue after it gets programmed to 'feel.' Aishwarya Rai plays Sana, the scientist's girlfriend who also becomes the robot's love interest. The film has been making headlines with its massive collections ever since its release. NDTV has reported that Endhiran has become the all-time biggest box office hit of India, beating biggies 3 Idiots (Aamir Khan and Kareena Kapoor) and Dabanng (Salman Khan). According to Businessofcinema.com, Endhiran (Tamil and Telugu versions) has also garnered about Rs 61 crore from the overseas market. The film, according to trade reports, is tipped to cross the Rs-350 crore (around $US 80 mn) mark.
The box office smash has also got raves for Aishwarya Rai in Bollywood circles and has reportedly made her look closer at the possibilities of doing more films down South. For now, the deal is enirely Bollywood for her, with two big releases in the pipeline: Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Guzaarish with Hrithik Roshan and Vipul Amritlal Shah's Action Replayy with Akshay Kumar.
Krishna Kumar - Senior journalist with more than 10 years' experience, on print and web. Has held senior positions in reporting and feature teams in ...
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