2.0 is a 2018 Indian Tamil-language science fiction action film written and directed by S. Shankar. Produced by Subaskaran under the banner of Lyca Productions. As the second installment in the Enthiran franchise, 2.0 is a standalone sequel to Enthiran (2010), featuring Rajinikanth reprising the roles of Vaseegaran and Chitti, alongside Akshay Kumar and Amy Jackson. Sudhanshu Pandey, Adil Hussain, Kalabhavan Shajohn, and K. Ganesh appear in supporting roles. The film follows the conflict between Chitti, the once dismantled humanoid robot, and Pakshi Rajan, a former ornithologist who seeks vengeance upon cell phone users to prevent avian population decline. The soundtrack is composed by A. R. Rahman, with lyrics written by Madhan Karky and Na. Muthukumar.
Produced on an estimated budget of ₹543 crore (US$76 million), 2.0 is the most expensive Indian film to date. Production began in 2015, with principal photography conducted at AVM Studios later that year. The first schedule was filmed at EVP World. Scenes were primarily shot in India, particularly in Chennai's Madras Boat Club and Delhi's Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium. Filming was completed by August 2017. The film is the first in Indian cinema to be natively shot in 3D, which was done by cinematographer Nirav Shah. Legacy Effects made their return to construct prosthetic makeup and animatronics, with visual effects supervised by V. Srinivas Mohan. Editing was handled by Anthony and production design was conducted by T. Muthuraj.
2.0 was released worldwide in both 3D and conventional format on 29 November 2018, along with its dubbed versions in Hindi and Telugu. It received generally positive reviews upon release. Critics particularly praised the film's visual effects, performances of Rajinikanth and Kumar, and social message; the pace and screenplay received criticism. It earned ₹117.34 crore (US$16 million) worldwide on its first day, which was the second highest ever for an Indian film. The film crossed ₹520 crore (US$72 million) in its opening weekend to be the highest-grossing film worldwide for that week. 2.0 is the second highest-grossing film in India and is the sixth highest-grossing Indian film worldwide.
The movie contains examples of:
- Alas, Poor Villain: Vaseegaran and Chitti do sympathize with Pakshi Rajan after listening to his motives. Although they do not approve of Pakshi's attempts to destroy society, Vaseegaran admits that Pakshi was a victim of a callous society.
- Animal Motifs: for Pakshi, it's birds since he was once an Ornithologist before he kills himself.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Pakshi Rajan, an Orinthologist who kills himself after his efforts to save the birds seems futile and his aura causes cellphones to go astray, and Dhinendra Bohra, Dr. Bohra's son who died in the first film, who wants revenge against Chitti for killing his father during the rampage.
- Break Out the Museum Piece: After Pakshi's rampage have started, the Indian Government unofficially gives Vaseegaran permission to rebuild Chitti, whose remaining pieces were displayed in the museum.
- Call-Back: The government's approval of Chitti is the culmination of Dr. Vaseegaran's ambition to create a robot to serve the military. Chitti failed to fulfil that goal in the first film, but succeeds in the second film.
- Characterization Marches On: In the first film, Chitti's ability to feel emotions causes him to rebel against Vaseegaran, even trying to murder his creator at one point. In the sequel, Chitti remains loyal to Vaseegaran and his emotional intelligence prevents him from killing his creator, even when the latter orders him to do so. In fact, Vaseegaran desperately orders Nila to plant the red chip in Chitti. In this movie, Evil Chitti is more of an Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy rather than a malevolent terrorist in the first film. The red chip's program was altered so that he would target only the Big Bad and not harm the public.
- Chekhov's Gunman: Remember the man who hangs himself in the first few minutes of the movie? that's Pakshi Rajan, the Big Bad of the movie.
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Dr. Bohra from the first movie was an evil scientist who built robots for terrorist groups, was greedy for money, and was envious and spiteful towards his former student, Vaseegaran. In the second movie, Pakshi is a Tragic Villain. He was once an unassuming professor of Ornithology who became depressed after his attempts to stop birds from dying of radiation failed. Fed up with society's callousness, he decided to destroy it.
- Demonic Possession: Pakshi Rajan's aura possesses Vaseegaran after he was freed by Dhinendra, enabling him to attack humans physically.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: Dhinendra is killed by the man whom he had freed.
- Meaningful Name: Pakshi Rajan literally means the "King of Birds".
- Replacement Goldfish: Eight years after Chitti is dismantled for causing destruction, Vaseegaran builds another robot named Nila. Vaseegaran builds Nila for caregiving purposes, as opposed to Chitti who was built for military purposes. Eventually, Vaseegaran reassembles Chitti. Chitti and Nila follow Vaseegaran for the rest of the movie.
- Ship Tease: Between Chitti and Vaseegaran's other robot, Nila. Towards the end of the film, Vaseegaran implicitly gives his approval to the relationship by ordering Chitti to take Nila with him to Delhi.
- Tragic Villain: Pakshi wanted to save the birds from high-frequency radiation, but his efforts were in vain and he kills himself. Unfortunately, his presence returns and starts making cellphones in the city gone astray.
- Unwitting Instigator of Doom: If Dhinendra wasn't consumed by revenge, Pakshi's aura wouldn't have entered Vaseegaran, enabling Pakshi Rajan to possess his body and attack humans and Chitti wouldn't resort to use the red chip, repeating the same situation from the first movie.
- Visual Pun: The scenes where Nila and Chitti transplant their MP Us (Memory and Power Unit; robotic equivalent of a heart) into each other, implying that they have accepted each other's feelings.
- Walking Spoiler: Pakshi Rajan's reasons why he killed himself and his rampage as an aura.
