Rajnikath met Amitabh Bachchan at Audio Release of Tamil 'Robot'

Rajnikath met Amitabh Bachchan at Audio Release of Tamil 'Robot': Audio Release of Tamil film director Shankar's Robot (Endhiran in Tamil), starring superstar Rajnikanth and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan. Present on the occasion were a galaxy of celebrities, including the Bachchan family, two Oscar winners in A R Rahman and Resul Pookkutty, and others. Krishnakumar Padmanabhan recalls the event

Rajnikath And Amitabh Bachchan

The Tamil movie industry is on the cusp of change.

Earlier, viewers had knowledge of upcoming releases only through massive posters in vantage points in Chennai and other major cities.

Then, makers of event movies -- starring Rajnikanth or Kamal Hassan -- began coming on satellite television trumpeting the virtues of their films.

Of late, with almost every other movie being produced or distributed by production houses belonging to the extended Karunanidhi family, who also have a virtual monopoly in the cable television space, most of these movies come with the now-standard 360-degree promotion.

Director Shankar's Endhiran (Robot in Hindi and Telugu) is by far the most-expensive Indian film ever produced, and thus, the stars and technicians could not escape the publicity rigmarole.

But at a time when Bollywood stars text Union ministers alleging humiliation at the hands of Western airport security, stage their disappearance and concoct link-ups on the eve of their release, the Endhiran launch was a shining example of how the southern industry has stayed away from cheap publicity stunts -- at least so far.