2.0: Rajinikanth and film script prompted Akshay Kumar to play villain after 16 years

Akshay Kumar has opted for a big career change by choosing to play the villain, Dr. Richard, in Rajinikanth’s 2.0, also called Robot 2. Akshay, who is known to play positive characters, be it the rescuer in Airlift or the happy-go-lucky guy in Singh is Kinng, is going to play a negative character after sixteen years. [caption id=“attachment_3488017” align=“alignnone” width=“820”]  The posters of 2.0. Image from Twitter.[/caption] In an interview with Bollywoodlife.com Akshay revealed what made him sign the film, despite the strong grey shades in his character. “The script, Shankar sir, Rajini sir- the whole combination. And I always wanted to work in South. Heard so much about the professionalism. It’s great to be a part of this kind of a film,” said Kumar. The posters show Akshay in a never seen before avatar. He seems to be going all out with the wicked vibe. “It’s been long since I have done a negative role. I played a negative role long back, in a film called Ajnabee. And that’s why I did it,” he added further. According to a  Deccan Chronicle report, Akshay Kumar is seen as a benevolent, kind force by the viewers and his evil roles have always been rejected by them. The makers are therefore trying to minimise his antagonism, to evoke sympathy in the audience. 2.0 is going to be a science-fiction film starring Rajinikanth, Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson among others. It is a sequel to the 2010 Tamil film Enthiran which had Aishwarya Rai and Rajinikanth in leading roles. Enthiran was dubbed in Hindi and titled Robot, hence the title Robot 2. Rajinikanth will be reprising his role as Dr. Vaseegaran and Chitti in 2.0. The film will be released in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. The film is being made on a mammoth budget of Rs. 4.8 billion and is being directed by S Shankar. Robot 2 was initially going to be released on 18 October 2017 but has now been postponed to 25 January.