Rajinikanth's Vikram Simha rights sold for record price

Hyderabad: Tamil Superstar Rajinikanth has huge fan following in Andhra Pradesh, which is almost equal to any other popular star in the state and most of his movies that released here have become big hits. His last outing Robo has gone on to set a new record at the AP Box Office. This actor is now all set to invade the theatres in the state with Vikram Simha and its theatrical rights have been sold for a whopping price.

Rajinikanth's last movie Robo was released in 2010 and his fans have seen desperately waiting to see him again on seen for the past three years. This curiosity had created lot of demand for the distribution rights of Vikram Simha and several leading distribution houses were vying for the rights. But it is Lakshmi Ganapathi Films, which has bagged the rights. Sources close to the production team say that it has shelled out a record price for it.

Vikram Simha is the Telugu version of Rajinikanth's Tamil movie Kochadaiyaan, which is a period film written by KS Ravikumar and directed by Soundarya R Ashwin. The movie features R Sarath Kumar, Aadhi, Deepika Padukone, Shobana, Rukmini Vijayakumar, Jackie Shroff and Nassar alongside Rajini. AR Rahman is composing music, while Rajiv Menon handles camera work for the film.

However, writer KS Ravikumar says that the film is partly inspired by the name of the Pandya Dynasty king Kochadaiyan Ranadhiran and the plot would be a fictional account with small references to Indian history. The movie has been shot with motion capture in 3D and its post-production works are currently going on at London, Hong Kong and Los Angeles. It is likely to release in July 2013.