Shankar makes his films with huge budgets and most of his movies have been considered as the highest budget flicks of its time.

Be it his Mudhalvan or Endhiran, the money-spent on the productions had made other film industries to turn around and look at Tamil film industry in surprise. There were reports that his latest film I is also falling into the same category as it is set to become a biggest-ever film made in India and budget is rumoured to be 185 crore.

Trashing media reports, deviating from the statement made by actor Vikram some time back (See 'Earlier' Section) about the production cost of his upcoming Shankar-directed Tamil-Telugu bilingual I, Shankar has stated categorically that the film’s budget is less than Rs.100 crores.

Vikram and Amy Jackson pair together for the second time after A.L. Vijay’s Thandavam as on-screen pair for Shankar’s I. Vikram-Shankar combine has already tasted tremendous with Anniyan which released some years back. As such, industry-watchers feel that their combination is sure to rock for another time as Shankar is also due for a super-duper hit after Rajini’s Enthiran: The Robot which released in 2010.

Vikram had stated in a recent interview that the budget was well over Rs.150 crores. This set tongues wagging as many wondered whether Vikram’s stardom at this juncture deserved such a huge investment.

Writing in his blog-site, Shankar has said “The budget of I would be less than Rs.100 crores and we have already shot in China, Bangkok, Kodaikkanal and Jodhpur besides in Chennai. Two-thirds of the film’s shoot including 4 songs and 3 stunt sequences have been shot so far. We are also assisted by a technical team, which worked in Hollywood projects such as Avatar and Lord of The Rings.

“It’s also far from the truth saying that we didn’t shoot in China and erected a China-like set in Kodaikkanal. We shot wherever we wanted to in China and were give fullest cooperation by the Chinese government in this regard,” wrote Shankar.

Clarifying on it, the director said that he generally returns most of the equipments used for the filmmaking and this brings down the production cost drastically.

I is into the post production stages and will hit the marquee next month, it is expected. The film stars Vikram and Amy Jackson as the lead pair, with AR Rahman composing the tunes.

Earlier

In an interview to a Delhi-based daily, Vikram has said that the movie is made with the budget of Rs more than 150 cr, which is the highest ever budget movie in Indian film industry. However, doubts are being raised by a section of traders on the budget, as I is neither a sci-fi nor a graphical extravaganza.

Adding to that the lead stars of I are less popular than of Endhiran, which featured Rajini and Aish. The expensive part of the movie is the rich visuals captured on camera in some of the popular destinations in the world.

An industry insider claims that the producer would find it very difficult to recover the investment if the said budget is true. Nonetheless, some of the well-known technicians from Hollywood are working in the project.