Superstar Rajinikanth's '2.0' directed by Shankar and produced by Lyca Productions is the costliest Indian film ever that is hitting screens worldwide on November 29th. The ace director has opened up about the film in a recent interaction in which he has explained about the casting of the important villain's role now played by Akshay Kumar.

According to Shankar initially, the role was offered to Hollywood great Arnold Schwarzenegger who showed interest but could not do the role due to scheduling conflicts. He had then approached Ulaganayagan Kamal Haasan who liked the role but was more keen to do 'Indian 2' with the director which has materialised now and shooting starts in mid-December.

Lyca Productions were in talks with Akshay Kumar to star in the Hindi remake of Thalapathy Vijay's 'Kaththi' when they offered him the chief antagonist's role in '2.0'. The Khiladi hero immediately jumped at the opportunity to work with Superstar Rajinikanth and also due to the fact that he was a fan of Shankar as well.