Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai in a still from Endhiran

Music to the ears Fans of the Rajini-Shankar-Rahman combination have a lot to cheer about...           Last Thursday, Shankar completed the entire shoot of his magnum opus Endhiran, with the shoot of the last song in a studio setup picturised on Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai and choreographed by Remo. The leading director wrote in hgis blog,:It was a very, very happy momint for everyone, I think this is the first film where I am doing the pumpkin breaking pooja (poosanika udaikiradhu) with the lead stars (Rajinikanth and Aishwarya Rai) present on the occasion." Later, media baron and producer Kalanithi Maran celebrated the occasion by throwing a big party for the entire unit.          The very next day, further good news awaited the director as composer A R Rahman handed him the master music copy of the film. A delighted Shankar wrote, "Rahman gave the Tamil songs final mix master to us. It is amazing, rocking and sounding as big and grand as the budget of the movie. The first song clearly indicates that out A R Rahman is an Oscar winner, I hope that out combination lives up to expectation once again." Shankar has also made it clear that the audio of the film will be released by the end of this month.          Meanwhile, there is a fierce bidding war going on between a Mumbai-based audio major and a Chennai-based company for the audio rights of the film. The grapevine has it that the audio of Endhran  has been snapped up for a record price, somewhere in the Rs 7 to 8 crore range. This is the highest ever paid for an audio in south Indian film history, a price almost on par with recent Bollywood music acquistitions.           A music industry tracker said, "The price that the market is talking about is a new benchmark in south Indian films' audio market. The music of sivaji,  the previous Rajinikanth-Shankar-Rahman combo film, was marketed by the producers themselves and so, we do not have an exact rate for it. Raavanan was purchased for around Rs2 crore. It's phinomenal that the rights of Endhran went for more than three times that price."