Rajinikanth's '2.0' release postponed; new dates for teaser, trailer launch to be announced

In a two-week span, a lot of changes have come about in the camp of Rajinikanth-Shankar’s magnum-opus 2.0. On 29 October, when Akshay Kumar — who plays the antagonist in 2.0 — took to his Twitter page to confirm the release date of his R Balki-directed Padman as 26 January 2018, the makers of 2.0 maintained that the sci-fi thriller was on course for a 25 January 2018 release. However, after pondering about the exhaustive post-production work that’s lying ahead, the makers have decided to change the date. “The movie has been postponed since the visual effects work is consuming more time than expected. Currently, the team is deliberating various options regarding the new release date, and an official poster will be released soon. The makers have already informed the event management team involved in the teaser and trailer launch to hold back,” a source privy to the development informed Firstpost. [caption id=“attachment_4205761” align=“alignnone” width=“825”]  Poster for 2.0[/caption] Initially, the teaser of the film was slated to be launched in a grand event in Hyderabad on 22 November at the Shilpakala Vedika auditorium, and the trailer launch was planned in December. Now, the makers have decided to push both the events since the release date is getting postponed. “Although 13 April 2018 is said to be the favourite choice of Tamil Nadu distributors since it marks the occasion of Tamil New Year festival, the makers are contemplating other options as well since North India is too huge a market to neglect because of the presence of Akshay Kumar in the film,” the source added. Marvel’s The New Mutants, the 11th installment in the X-Men series, has also been scheduled to hit screens on 13 April and it will be a major threat to 2.0 in the US since the former has already earmarked a significant number of 3D screens there. Made at a whopping budget of Rs 400 crores by Lyca Productions, 2.0 is directed by Shankar and is touted to be Asia’s costliest “natively acquired” 3D film. Editor Anthony too confirmed at the audio launch a few weeks back that the run-time of the film will be around two hours and twenty minutes, making it the shortest movie of Shankar. Various organisations, from more than 10 countries, are working round the clock with Legacy Effects, Tau Films, Quantum FX, Double Negative and national award-winning VFX-supervisor Srinivas Mohan on the film’s visual effects. The film fraternity is waiting with bated breath since 2.0’s release date will lead to a ripple effect in reshuffling the other release dates of films from Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi industries. In Telugu, Mahesh Babu-Koratala Siva’s Bharat Ane Nenu, and Allu Arjun-Vakkantham Vamsi’s Naa Peru Surya have already confirmed 27 April as the release date, two weeks after the speculated release of 2.0.