Over 3,500 screens in the country, 700 screens abroad, including unconventional international markets like Peru and Israel - the release of Shah Rukh Khan's next gets bigger. Riding on Rohit Shetty-created "Chennai Express", the Bollywood Badshah is all set to woo his fans with the potboiler, which is opening in both multiplexes and single-screens on the home turf.
In fact, "Chennai Express" will be the first movie to released the same day in Peru as India. Screens in Morocco, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France and Israel have also been locked.
The movie will be released in North America across 195 screens, in Britain across 175 screens, in the Middle East 55 screens and 30 screens in Australia. "Chennai Express" is said to be the first movie to be released on such a large scale in overseas market.
Co-produced by Red Chillies Entertainments and UTV Motion Pictures, if the film has star power with SRK teaming up with Deepika Padukone, the Rs.75 crore movie will be a solo release.
"We are targeting to release the movie in more than 3,500 screens making it our widest release in India and probably the widest of all time. We want to make the film available to everyone... hope we are able to cater to the huge demand from audiences and exhibitors," Gaurav Verma, Director - India Theatrical Distribution, Studios, Disney UTV said in a statement.
The story revolves around a north Indian guy Rahul, (Shah Rukh), whose life takes a 180 degree turn when he crosses paths with south Indian girl Meena Lochni, played by Deepika, in the train Chennai Express.
While the cast has travelled extensively for promoting the movie, Shah Rukh, known for his high-on-promotion marketing spree, also entered the virtual world with a game titled "Chennai Express: Escape from Rameshwaram", based on the movie.
He said: "I strongly feel that every film requires right marketing and promotions."
There is a lot of pre-release buzz around the movie in India as SRK will be seen on the silver screen after almost nine months. A lot of international markets are also relying on the business of the movie as it releases in over 700 screens in more than 50 countries.
There's been an obvious and huge demand for "Chennai Express" across cinemas worldwide, according Amrita Pandey, executive director - Syndication, International Distribution and Disney Media Distribution, Studios, Disney UTV.
"In many countries, Eid, school mid-term holidays, have made next weekend one of the busiest in terms of number of English and international language releases. In such a week, the number of screens, locations and shows we've secured for this movie gives it the right footprint," said Pandey.
The music of the movie has been composed by duo Vishal Dadlani and Shekhar Ravijiani and they have experimented and introduced a dub-step version. The music also brings back singer S.P. Balasubrahmanyam to Bollywood after almost a decade.
The burden of expectations rides high on this comedy-action entertainer.
