We’ve been hearing about Rajnikanth’s much-hyped project Kochadaiyaan, starring Rajnikanth and Deepika Padukone, for a while now. But after Robot, the superstar had other things on his mind. Like Sultan, a 3D animated film with the actor’s daughter Soundarya R Ashwin . But the project didn’t take off. Next, there was Rana, which was to be directed by K S Ravi Kumar but Rajnikanth was indisposed and shooting stalled. After recovering, Rajni began shooting for Kochadaiyaan.

A source who is very close to Rajnikanth tells us, “Rajni sir’s health was an issue and Sultan was costing too much as there was to be 3D and animation. So they decided to blend the concepts of Rana and Sultan and came up with Kochadaiyaan, which is also about a superhero. Rather than make three different films, he decided to work on one film.” Kochadaiyaan is first film to be shot in 3D, using Motion Capture Technology.

Since music maestro AR Rahman had already done a few songs for Sultan, he will rework them and add them to Kochadaiyaan.

The film is to release on 12.12.12.