Bets are being taken down South whether Shankar’s sci-fi thriller 2.0 starring Rajnikanth and Akshay Kumar will beat all records set by SS Rajamouli’s 2017 blockbuster Baahubali 2: The Conclusion starring Prabhas and Rana Daggubati. Indications are that this is very likely to happen given the exciting buzz created by the VFX and action-heavy trailer.

A week and more before its release, 2.0 crossed Rs. 120 crore in its advance booking, making it the first Tamil film to go past the Rs. 100 crore mark ahead of its theatrical release. The film also surpassed Baahubali 2 in the number of screens it will be releasing on worldwide. While Rajamouli’s film was released on approximately 9,000 screens, Shankar’s will release on around 10,000 screens.

[caption id="attachment_170047" align="aligncenter" width="647"] Posters of 2.0 ft Akshay Kumar and Rajinikanth[/caption]

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Further details emerging about 2.0 on which a publicity ban has unofficially been declared, is that it is 148 minutes (2 hours 28 minutes) long. This is Shankar’s shortest (and costliest at Rs. 500 crore) film. Its prequel, Robot in 2010, was 167 minutes (2 hours 47 minutes).  Which is nothing compared to Shankar’s longest film, the Vikram starrer I, which was 188 minutes (3 hours 8 minutes).

[caption id="attachment_170050" align="aligncenter" width="734"] Poster of Bahubali 2: The Conclusion[/caption]

Kollywood trade sources are confident that 2.0 will pose a stiff challenge to Baahubali 2’s box office record. Bollywood was expecting YRF’s Diwali period adventure fantasyThugs of Hindostan to do that. But the Aamir Khan-Amitabh Bachchan starrer turned out to be one of Bollywood’s biggest disasters and now it’s left to 2.0 to take on Baahubali 2. Chennai film critics are of the opinion that the Rajnikanth-Shankar team is hard to beat. This is their third film together. The previous two, Shivaji and Robot, were blockbusters.