SRK, Shankar Project abandoned

Director Shankar's pet project "Robot" has been abandoned, Hindi star Shahrukh Khan (SRK) reportedly revealed in a media interview.

Shankar and SRK were to have jointly produced this film in Hindi with the actor himself playing the lead role.

Shankar had the outline of the story ready even before the film "Jeans" was made. The concept was that if Robot gets to dominate our country where it will lead to. Writer Sujatha assisted Shankar in writing the story. He first wanted to make the film featuring Kamal Haasan. Kamal too agreed. As the project was estimated to cost a whopping Rs 100 crore, producers shied away. Shankar then put the project on hold and got busy with Rajini-starrer "Shivaji: The Boss" produced by AVM.

Shankar wanted his next project to be even bigger than "Shivaji" and decided to take up "Robot". Since the budget is very high, he planned to make it in Hindi and approached SRK, who liked the idea and offered to produce the film himself and also act in it. Shankar then camped in Hyderabad and finalized the story after discussions. Reports which appeared at that time indicated that the shooting of "Robot" would begin in December this year.

SRK in his interview said, Shankar and he now decided to give up the project as the final script was not fully satisfying. Hailing Shankar as his best friend, SRK said he had earlier discussed with him in Mumbai his plans to remake "Mudalvan" in Hindi, but he (SRK) expressed his inability to act in the film for some reasons. When Shankar told him about "Robot", he showed interest in the hope that the film could be made in Hollywood style. But the problems regarding the story made them reconsider the matter and decided to abandon the project. "However our friendship would continue," SRK said.

Shankar has confirmed SRK's statement that the "Robot" project has been given up and that it was the decision of both of them. Shankar further said the full script (screenplay) in English was given to SRK and as the story impressed SRK very much, he agreed to associate with him in the production of the film and also act in it. But later, some problems arose which forced them to give up the project, he added.