First look of Shankar's 2.0 revealed: Rajinikanth in dark glasses, Akshay Kumar evil incarnate

Rajinikanth was present - as Chitti, the robot, and himself! The rest of the cast, including Akshay Kumar, Amy Jackson, and Sudhansu Pandey were also there, as were Oscar winners AR Rahman and Resul Pookutty. Shankar, the captain of the ship, couldn't stop beaming as the audience cheered for the little tricks and surprises packed into the event. 

 

Karan Johar, the emcee, looked puzzled by some of Rajinikanth's punch dialogues delivered in Tamil - "Kanna, naan eppo varuven, epdi varuvennu yaarkum theriyaadhu, aana varavendiya nerathla correcta vandhuduven" (Son, nobody knows when I will come and how I will come, but I will come correctly at the right time) - but Chitti, who was sitting in the audience, was kind enough to do a Hindi translation for him. 

 

When asked how Chitti was sitting in the audience when he was dismantled at the end of "Enthiran", Rajinikanth's "bad boy" laughter made the audience whoop their approval. This was followed by another Thalaivar punch line, "Enna yaaralayum azhikka mudiyadhu" - "Nobody can destroy me!".

 

Karan Johar asked Chitti how he felt about hitting on Sana (Aishwarya Rai), his boss's girlfriend. Chitti regretfully told him that Sana had "friend-zoned" him and added with a sigh "Ae dil hai mushikil." 

 

Chitti told Karan that Amitabh Bachchan was the king of Bollywood but couldn't pick just one lady for the queen's status - his list ranged from Madhuri Dixit to Rakhi Sawant. 

 

When asked about the hot topic of the hour, demonetisation, Chitti said that he'd heard about this from his "boss" - not Vaseegaran of "Enthiran" but "Sivaji, the boss", the Rajinikanth-starrer which had offered the demonetisation of Rs 500 and Rs 1000 notes as a solution to black money hoarding. 

 

It was possible for Chitti and Rajinikanth to be present at the same time because of the augmented reality technology - there were some glitches but it worked well for most part of the show. 

 

Dressed in black and as usual without makeup or wig, Rajinikanth was all humility. AR Rahman said that "2.0" was the toughest film he'd worked on so far because Shankar was not happy with anything he was giving him! The Oscar winner said that the director had liked the trailer music and one song so far. AR Rahman added that Shankar was under a lot of pressure to make "2.0" an exemplary film in India and internationally. 

 

Walt Jones, who's taking care of the VFX in "2.0", Asia's most expensive film so far, said that this was an "enormous undertaking" but that he was not too daunted by the responsibility.

 

The first looked was unveiled by Shankar, AR Rahman, producer Subas Karan, Akshay Kumar, and Rajinikanth. 

 

Salman Khan made an arrival and exchanged warm hugs with Rajinikanth. He said that he hadn't been invited for the event but had turned up just to see Rajinikanth. He also commended Akshay Kumar for "growing" in his career and not stagnating like the rest of them. 

 

Amy Jackson, the pretty leading lady of "2.0", was called onstage briefly for an introduction and later only so Salman Khan could be photographed with the cast and crew of the film.