Ra.One (Hindi: रा.वन) is an upcoming 2011 Hindi Superhero film directed by Anubhav Sinha, and starring Shahrukh Khan, Kareena Kapoor and Arjun Rampal in the lead roles. It also stars Shahana Goswami, Dilip Tahil and Chinese-American actor Tom Wu in supporting roles.
The film is jointly produced under Khan's production company Red Chillies Entertainment and Eros International,[1] and was originally scheduled to release in the summer of 2011. However, due to extensive post-production work involving special effects and its 3D conversion, the film was pushed back and is now set to release worldwide during the Diwali weekend of October 26, 2011.[2] Ra.One is currently India's most expensive film to date[3] and will be released in both 2D and 3D formats across 3,200 screens in India,[4] along with its dubbed versions in Tamil, Telugu and German.[5]
The film's crew comprises of more than 5,000 members from India, Italy and the US.[8] Special effects creator Robert Kurtzman was assigned to design the suits of Khan and Rampal's characters. Nicola Pecorini was roped in as the director of photography, with V. Manikandan providing extra assistance, and Martin Walsh was responsible to edit the film.[8] Sound designer Resul Pookutty was roped in to enhance the sound effects with the use of the Dolby Surround 7.1 system. In an interview, Pookutty explained, "You see, Ra.One is not just a movie experience... It requires a very unconventional sound and visual quality for which we are installing the required equipment."[8]
Due to the revived interest in 3D technology in India, brought in by the success of Haunted – 3D (2011), the makers of the film announced that they were contemplating on turning portions of the movie into 3D, although there were various reservations to it at the beginning. Khan revealed "Some part of the film we are trying to do in 3D and Prime Focus is doing that for us. They have a technology with which after you have shot the film, it could be converted into 3D. But there are reservations on it because you know that we have to shoot that with different cameras...the same trailer, actually in a matter of fact, we are going to check out in few days and if it comes out well, then parts of the film I would like to do in 3D".[10] In July 2011, it was announced that the entire film would be converted into 3D. A skill set of around 1,000 people was required to execute the conversions.[11][12]
There are close to 3,500 VFX shots in Ra.One, 800 shots of the suit alone, which is about 40 minutes of footage. While Khan shot the film wearing a simple suit for his character G.One, a lot of shimmer was added to it later to enhance its look. The film is also being pieced together by more than 1,000 people working in shifts in 14 to 15 studios across the world including some in London, Canada, Massachusetts, South India and Mumbai. The idea of making a VFX-loaded film took root when SRK was working on his 2004 release,Main Hoon Na. “There is no software or technique in the industry that we have not used for this film. For 3D, we have used software like Maya, Houdini and Macs. For composites, we have used Nuke and Shake. We have even written our own programmes. We programmed certain things rather than doing them manually,” explains Keitan Yadav, COO and VFX Producer at Red Chillies.[12]
Reports of similarities between Ra.One and the 2010 Tamil release Enthiran have been surfacing since the former entered principal photography. When asked about the comparisons, Khan noted "They [both] are different films. I will not like to talk about anyone else's film but Rajni sir is respectable to all of us."[13]
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, along with Yash Chopra, Khan and Kapoor (l-r) on the sets of the film.As a way to make his character more believable, Khan decided that he would perform his own stunts in the film.[14] In 2010, Kareena Kapoor was signed on to play the female lead whilst Arjun Rampal was later approached for his role of a villain. During an appearance on the chat show Friday Night with Jonathan Ross, Khan stated that Jackie Chan was "approached for a role in the film". Khan had reportedly sent Chan the detailed script of the film, along with the action sequences and a brief synopsis of his character;[15] it was later confirmed that Chan would not be part of the project.[16] In July 2010, Khan announced that Chinese-American actor Tom Wu would be part of the film.[17] Actors Sanjay Dutt and Priyanka Chopra were confirmed to make cameos.[18]
Ra.One's shooting was originally supposed to begin in Miami, USA, but due to budget concerns this was scrapped.[19] The first phase of filming began in India in March 2010 and continued till May in Mumbai's Film City and Goa.[20] While filming, Khan admitted to finding difficulties with the rubber-made costume that was specially designed for his character, later commenting: "The costume was designed in a way that I had to take the help of girls to get into it and vice-versa. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink much in between the shoots [...] By the time, the shooting of the film was wrapped up; I ended up losing ten kilos."[9] Production of the film's second and third phase occurred with the entire cast in London, and ended in August,[21] which included a heavy duty action scene involving Khan and Kapoor.[22] During this period, a picture of Kapoor's character was also revealed to the media.[23] The film's final phase commenced at Filmistan Studio in December 2010 and was shot over seven days.[24] The remaining portions were shot in Mumbai and completed in July 2011. While shooting for the film in Mumbai, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Yash Raj Studios, to watch Khan at work.[25] In order to celebrate the film's completion, a wrap-up party was held at the end of the month in Mumbai.[26]
35 crore (US$7.81 million), surpassing the previous record of 3 Idiots for 33 crore (US$7.36 million).[8] The film's music rights were bought by T-Series for 15 crore (US$3.35 million) whilst the distribution rights were acquired by Eros Entertainment for 77 crore (US$17.17 million).[8]
In early September, Red Chillies Entertainment launched the official channel of the film on YouTube where several song and theatrical promos were released to the public, along with videos of the film's making, events and uncut footage.[32] The company set a record marketing budget of around40 crore (US$8.92 million), of which 15 crore (US$3.35 million) has been used for online promotion, making it the highest ever for a Bollywood film.[33]
4.5 crore (US$1 million), the game would be based on the character of G.One and would be launched across platforms like mobiles, tablet PCs, the direct-to-home platform and social networking sites like Facebook.[35] According to the company's digital and new media head Shailja Gupta, the idea behind the digital marketing is to create a franchisee for Ra.One. She explained, "Social gaming is just one part of the digit marketing strategy. The unique part of the social game is the integration of merchandise and gaming."[35]
The film is jointly produced under Khan's production company Red Chillies Entertainment and Eros International,[1] and was originally scheduled to release in the summer of 2011. However, due to extensive post-production work involving special effects and its 3D conversion, the film was pushed back and is now set to release worldwide during the Diwali weekend of October 26, 2011.[2] Ra.One is currently India's most expensive film to date[3] and will be released in both 2D and 3D formats across 3,200 screens in India,[4] along with its dubbed versions in Tamil, Telugu and German.[5]
Contents[hide] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Cast
- Shahrukh Khan as Shekhar Subramanium / G.One
- Kareena Kapoor as Sonia Shekhar Subramanium
- Arjun Rampal as Ra.One
- Armaan Verma as Prateek Subramanium a.k.a. Lucifer
- Shahana Goswami as Jenny Nayar
- Satish Shah as Iyer
- Dalip Tahil as Barron
- Tom Wu as Akashi
- Suresh Menon
- Sanjay Dutt as Khalnayak (Special appearance)
- Priyanka Chopra as The Damsel in Distress (Special appearance)
Production
Development
According to director Anubhav Sinha, the idea of making Ra.One originated while he was watching television six years ago. Sinha wrote the script and gave it to Shahrukh Khan who then agreed to both produce and star in it.[6] The film has been in the making for over four years. He explains, "We invested as many as two years into the pre-production of the film, the actual filming was spread through one full year and then the post-production has been a year-long process as well".[7] To prepare for the film, Sinha spent months going through video clips, digital art portals and comic books,[8] and also enrolled with a special effects class to learn the new techniques that would be used in the film.[6] "Ra.One is the modern, new age technology version of our mythological "Raavan", who was a mixture of ten different evil characters. I am essaying the role of G.One or better say "Jeevan", a superhero who saves the mankind from Ra.One's torment. Through this film, I want to prove that Indian superheroes can also be as cool as the international ones."
—Shahrukh Khan on Ra.One[9]
Due to the revived interest in 3D technology in India, brought in by the success of Haunted – 3D (2011), the makers of the film announced that they were contemplating on turning portions of the movie into 3D, although there were various reservations to it at the beginning. Khan revealed "Some part of the film we are trying to do in 3D and Prime Focus is doing that for us. They have a technology with which after you have shot the film, it could be converted into 3D. But there are reservations on it because you know that we have to shoot that with different cameras...the same trailer, actually in a matter of fact, we are going to check out in few days and if it comes out well, then parts of the film I would like to do in 3D".[10] In July 2011, it was announced that the entire film would be converted into 3D. A skill set of around 1,000 people was required to execute the conversions.[11][12]
There are close to 3,500 VFX shots in Ra.One, 800 shots of the suit alone, which is about 40 minutes of footage. While Khan shot the film wearing a simple suit for his character G.One, a lot of shimmer was added to it later to enhance its look. The film is also being pieced together by more than 1,000 people working in shifts in 14 to 15 studios across the world including some in London, Canada, Massachusetts, South India and Mumbai. The idea of making a VFX-loaded film took root when SRK was working on his 2004 release,Main Hoon Na. “There is no software or technique in the industry that we have not used for this film. For 3D, we have used software like Maya, Houdini and Macs. For composites, we have used Nuke and Shake. We have even written our own programmes. We programmed certain things rather than doing them manually,” explains Keitan Yadav, COO and VFX Producer at Red Chillies.[12]
Reports of similarities between Ra.One and the 2010 Tamil release Enthiran have been surfacing since the former entered principal photography. When asked about the comparisons, Khan noted "They [both] are different films. I will not like to talk about anyone else's film but Rajni sir is respectable to all of us."[13]
Filming and casting
Ra.One's shooting was originally supposed to begin in Miami, USA, but due to budget concerns this was scrapped.[19] The first phase of filming began in India in March 2010 and continued till May in Mumbai's Film City and Goa.[20] While filming, Khan admitted to finding difficulties with the rubber-made costume that was specially designed for his character, later commenting: "The costume was designed in a way that I had to take the help of girls to get into it and vice-versa. I wasn’t allowed to eat or drink much in between the shoots [...] By the time, the shooting of the film was wrapped up; I ended up losing ten kilos."[9] Production of the film's second and third phase occurred with the entire cast in London, and ended in August,[21] which included a heavy duty action scene involving Khan and Kapoor.[22] During this period, a picture of Kapoor's character was also revealed to the media.[23] The film's final phase commenced at Filmistan Studio in December 2010 and was shot over seven days.[24] The remaining portions were shot in Mumbai and completed in July 2011. While shooting for the film in Mumbai, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev visited Yash Raj Studios, to watch Khan at work.[25] In order to celebrate the film's completion, a wrap-up party was held at the end of the month in Mumbai.[26]
Soundtrack
Main article: Ra.One (soundtrack)
The soundtrack of Ra.One was composed by Vishal-Shekhar whilst the lyrics were penned by Atahar Panchi, Vishal Dadlani and Kumaar. Director Anubhav Sinha announced that the soundtrack would also feature two songs recorded by Senegalese American R&B singer Akon.[27] The makers of the film have complied with international copyright laws and have obtained the license to use Ben E. King's song, "Stand By Me", on which they have based the song "Dildaara".[28]Marketing
Satellite and music rights
In March 2011, it was announced that the television broadcasting rights for Ra.One had been sold to Star India for a then-record sum of35 crore (US$7.81 million), surpassing the previous record of 3 Idiots for 33 crore (US$7.36 million).[8] The film's music rights were bought by T-Series for 15 crore (US$3.35 million) whilst the distribution rights were acquired by Eros Entertainment for 77 crore (US$17.17 million).[8]Promotions
Ra.One's first look was unveiled by Khan on his Twitter page on January 1, 2011.[29] Several months later, director Anubhav Sinha announced that he would be launching two teaser trailers of the film during the 2011 Cricket World Cup, a prior nine months before the film's actual release date.[30] Asked about why he was launching the film's trailer so early, Sinha commented, "Ra.One is not a Bollywood film that [the audiences] have seen before. The kind of size and magnitude that the film has requires it to be slowly introduced to the audience and that is the very purpose why we are starting the whole communication so early."[30] The film's first theatrical trailer was released three months later to the public. As a way to promote the theatrical trailer, Khan was accompanied by the director on a five city tour, which included such places like Delhi, Chandigarh, Indore and Ahmedabad.[31] Khan further reported that he would be travelling along with his co-stars (Kapoor and Rampal) to 36 different cities over a period of five months to promote the film.[31] During the same event, a 3600 ft long fan mail collecting audience wishes and messages for the film was also launched.[31]In early September, Red Chillies Entertainment launched the official channel of the film on YouTube where several song and theatrical promos were released to the public, along with videos of the film's making, events and uncut footage.[32] The company set a record marketing budget of around
40 crore (US$8.92 million), of which 15 crore (US$3.35 million) has been used for online promotion, making it the highest ever for a Bollywood film.[33]Video games
In July, Red Chillies Entertainment declared a tie-up with Sony Computer Entertainment Europe (SCEE) to build a full cycle game of the film on PlayStation which offers more than 20 game environments. The video game, called "Ra.One - The Game", would be available on PS2 and PS3, and will make its debut in September 2011 before the film's release.[34] In addition to launching the video game, Red Chillies also collaborated with UTV Indiagames to design a social game based on the film.[35] An investment of around4.5 crore (US$1 million), the game would be based on the character of G.One and would be launched across platforms like mobiles, tablet PCs, the direct-to-home platform and social networking sites like Facebook.[35] According to the company's digital and new media head Shailja Gupta, the idea behind the digital marketing is to create a franchisee for Ra.One. She explained, "Social gaming is just one part of the digit marketing strategy. The unique part of the social game is the integration of merchandise and gaming."[35]
No comments:
Post a Comment