While we don't have an eclectic collection of quirky, madcap scientists like Dr Strangelove or Dr Evil to boast of, there's a curious enough assortment of serious and silly inventors to look about.

Director Shankar's latest offering, a lavish bilingual project -- Endhiran (Tamil) and Robot (Hindi), features superstar Rajnikanth in a double role. While a great deal of secrecy has been maintained about its plot, buzz is the actor plays a scientist who develops a robot with artificial intelligence capabilities for the greater good of mankind.

Considering the hoopla and excitement surrounding this project from the word go, its big screen outcome is most awaited. Meanwhile, here's a look at the various scienist portrayals in Hindi films.

As the monopolizing, power-hungry scientist, an unusual loud Naseeruddin Shah, uses another's skills and special gifts to build a clairvoyant computer so that he can control the world.

But when Hrithik Roshan is the superhero of a franchise, evil has no chance at victory.

He's a fun-loving student for the better part of 3 Idiots.

As it turns out, Aamir Khan's also the ingenious scientist Phunsukh Wangdu -- mentioned all through the film -- running an extraordinarily creative school for the children of Ladakh.

Long before Mr India's daddy left him an invisibility-triggering wrist watch, a bumbling scientist Dr Mathur, played by character actor Randhir, concocts some magical pills which provide the exact same results.

Only this time Kishore Kumar plays the unseen, melody-spewing guinea pig.

She's a tad too hot and skimpily dressed to pass off as a US-based scientist down in India with her team to explore and experiment on the mystical powers of a psychic healer.

But hey, it's Bollywood, and it's mandatory to pitch in some Bipasha Basu-flavoured glamour.

Unlike the fictitious, far-fetched scientists of Bollywood, Mohan Bhargav is as real as it gets.

SRK, in one of his best acting works, plays a NRI working in NASA who makes a trip back home to convince his erstwhile nanny to join him in the US.

Eventually, he flexes his scientist skills to set up a small-scale power plant in order to provide electricity in the village.