Rajinikanth's '2.0' to be first south Indian film to release in Saudi Arabia?

Even before superstar Rajinikanth's film "2.0" comes out on the floor, there is happy news ringing for the south Indian project.

If reports published in a leading daily are to be believed, "2.0" could become the first major south Indian movie to launch in the highly conservative Saudi Arabian market.

TheSaudi Arabian government had shut down all of its cinema halls in the 1980s and since then no movies have released in that country.

With the new Saudi Arabian government trying to project a new and modern imageof the nation, thereisnews thatthey willbe openingtheir cinema hallsfrom March 2018.

This has propelled the makers of 2.0 tomake efforts to launch thehighly-anticipated filmin the nation.

As quoted in the daily,Raju Mahalingam, COO of Lyca Productions, said, "The overall revenue for a big film production can increase by 30 per cent. Since movies have now begun to open in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu in India, we hope to release them in all three languages in Saudi Arabia too. A new market in West Asia, where a substantial number of Tamil and Malayalees stay, will be a big boost for our movies.”

The film is directed by Shankar and will be a sequel to the2010 blockbuster "Enthiran", which had Rajinikanth in the lead role and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan as the heroine.

In "2.0", Bollywood starAkshay Kumar will play the antagonist and Amy Jackson will be seen as Rajinikanth’s love-interest. AR Rahman is producing music in the film with Nirav Shah on camera and Anthony at editing.

The movie is projected as the most expensive movies India has ever seen and isproduced by A Subhashkaran under his banner Lyca Productions on a budget of Rs 450 crores.

The mega-budget sci-fi movie is expected to release in three languages, Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu.

"2.0"was initially scheduled to hit the screens during the Republic Day weekend but its release has been pushed to April 15, 2018.