Chennai Express wants everyone to show them the money

There’s a lot riding on Chennai Express, and the movie-makers know it. The public has been carpet-bombed with promotions for the movie over the last few months, building buzz to the point that advance bookings are doing healthy business within a couple of days of opening. According to Koimoi.com, in Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore, the movie has  already sold  30% of its weekend tickets. Chennai Express, which is releasing this Friday, is one of the most anticipated movies of the year. It stars marquee names like Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, and is directed by Rohit Shetty, the commercial mastermind behind movies like Singham and Golmaal. Not only that, but the formula of north Indian boy meets south Indian girl, meshed into the comedy-action-romance genre that Shetty specialises in, promises to make it a commercial, if not critical, success. [caption id=“attachment_1010525” align=“alignleft” width=“380”] A still from Chennai Express.[/caption] Chennai Express is probably going to add another 100-crore movie to Shetty’s already glowing resume. So breaking even on a Rs 70 crore production cost is probably not the biggest worry on the producers’s minds. But with television deals now being a big part of a movie’s success, the 100-crore tag means more than prestige for the Chennai Express team. According to an article in Mint , Zee Entertainment Enterprises Ltd’s newly launched movie channel &Pictures has paid Rs 48 crore for the satellite rights of Chennai Express for seven years. But the acquisition price is closely linked to the movie’s box office success – if Chennai Express earns more than Rs 100 crore, &Pictures will pay Rs two crore extra for every Rs 10 crore of the net collections. With no other Hindi or English movies being released on the same day, Chennai Express will dominate the domestic cinema screens. It’s expected to open in over 3,500 screens across the country, with the biggest domestic release yet for Disney-UTV, the film’s distributors. And even though Hindi movies have traditionally not done as well in South Indian markets, Chennai Express’s story as well as Khan’s pan-India appeal is making executives optimistic. Gaurav Verma, a director at Disney-UTV, confirmed in the Mint article that they are planning to “go wider” in the South this time. “Shah Rukh Khan has been doing very well in the South for some time compared to other stars,” said Verma in the article. “This time we will go a little wider because of his acceptance in the market.” Internationally as well, the movie isn’t hedging its bets. The Economic Times reports, Chennai Express will have the biggest UK release ever , and will also release in seven new markets, including  Peru, Morocco, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and  Israel. Peru, though seemingly a strange choice for a Bollywood release, has seen two Hindi movies release there before – My Name Is Khan and Guzaarish. But these movies only released long after their international releases, whereas Chennai Express will dazzle Peruvian audiences on the same day as its Indian release. Besides all these financial reasons, Chennai Express could be a turning point for Shah Rukh Khan’s career. By taking on the potboiler approach to cinema, which he attempted once before with Ra-One, Khan is taking a leaf out of his frenemy Salman Khan’s book. Salman Khan has successfully reinvented himself as a massive superstar with the same kind of movies – qualitatively questionable masala flicks that feature a lot of slow-motion and item numbers. With Chennai Express, Shah Rukh is making the decision to leave no stone unturned – or car unblown up – in his quest for box office domination.