First Look Poster of Rajinikanth's Rana

Rajinikanth's next magnum opus Rana commences shooting in Chennai from today (April 29th).

Bollywood beauty Deepika Padukone is the Southern superstar's leading lady in the film where Rajini will be seen in a triple role. Sonu Sood and Ileana D'Cruz are among the other prominent members of the cast.

Produced by Eros International, the film is directed by K S Ravikumar. Here's the First Look of Rajinikanth as Rana.

Click on image below to view full size

Poster of Rajinikanth's Rana, Rana Movie Poster

The director said the shooting will commence with a puja by Rajinikanth along with the cast and crew.

Rana will be a live action magnum opus with Rajinikanth playing a triple role and will be released in Tamil, Hindi and Telugu.

Director Ravikumar said, "Rana has a strong story, a very interesting ensemble cast coupled with super star Rajnikanth in a triple role and promises to have some stunning visual effects that will surely take Indian cinema to the next level.

Sunil Lulla, Managing Director, Eros International Media Ltd added, "We are expecting this to be a landmark film for all those associated with the project".

The music for the film is being scored by A R Rahman, director of photography is Ratnavelu and editing would be done by Antony.

The technical director is Soundarya Rajnikanth, of Ocher Visual effects UK, a subsidiary of Ocher Studios Pvt Limited, and Charles Darby of Eyeqube Studios, renowned visual effects luminary and an Emmy award winner, is the creative and special effects director on the film.

The film is scheduled for release in 2012. Eros International along with NextGen Films, will produce the film through Rana Production Ltd.

Full name :     Tom Cruise
Date of birth:  3rd July 1962 (43)
Star Sign:        Cancer
Hair:                Brown
Eyes:               Brown
Highest Salary:     $25 Million
Born:              Syracuse, NY
Divorced:       Nicole Kidman

Mini Biography
  If you had told 14 year old Franciscan seminary student Thomas Cruise Mapother IV that one day in the not too distant future he would be considered one of the top 100 movie stars of all time, he would have probably grinned and told you that his ambition was to become a priest. Nonetheless, this sensitive, deeply religious youngster who was born in July 1962 in Syracuse, New York, was destined to become Tom Cruise, one of the highest paid and most sought-after actors in screen history. The only son (among four children) of nomadic parents, young Tom spent his boyhood eternally on the move, and by the time he was 14, had attended 15 different schools in the US and Canada. He finally settled in Glen Ridge, New Jersey, with his mother and her new husband. While in high school, he developed an interest in acting and abandoned his plans of becoming a priest, and at age 18 headed for New York and a possible acting career. The next 15 years of his life are the stuff of legends. He made his film debut with a small part in Endless Love (1981) and from the outset exhibited an undeniable box office appeal to both male and female audiences. Within 5 years Tom Cruise was starring in some of the top grossing films of the decade including Top Gun (1986); The Color of Money (1986), Rain Man (1988) and Born on the Fourth of July (1989). By the 1990s and 2000s he was one of the highest paid actors in the world earning an average 15 million dollars a picture in such blockbuster hits as Interview with the Vampire: The Vampire Chronicles (1994), Mission: Impossible (1996), Mission: Impossible II (2000), Mission: Impossible III (2006), Vanilla Sky (2001), Minority Report (2002), The Last Samurai (2003), Collateral (2004), War of the Worlds (2005), and Jerry Maguire (1996) - for which he received an Academy Award Nomination for best actor. In 1990 he renounced his devout Catholic beliefs and embraced The Church Of Scientology claiming that Scientology teachings had cured him of the dyslexia that had plagued him all of his life. A kind and thoughtful man well known for his compassion and generosity, Tom Cruise is one of the best liked members of the movie community. He was married to actress Nicole Kidman until 2001. Thomas Cruise Mapother IV has indeed come a long way from the lonely wanderings of his youth.