Chennai Express

<p>Rahul Mithaiwala, a 40-year-old rich bachelor, lives in Mumbai with his paternal grandparents. Rahul’s grandfather Y. Y. Mithaiwala is a businessman and owner of a chain of confectionery shops. Before Y. Y.’s 100th-birthday celebration, Rahul’s friends Bobby and Baman invite him to a vacation in , which he accepts. Meanwhile, Y. Y. dies on the eve of the celebration when he witnesses on TV in a match get on his 99th . After Y. Y.’s funeral, Rahul’s grandmother Neetu tells Rahul that Y. Y. wanted his ashes to be divided into two parts—one part to be immersed in the , and the other in . Neetu asks Rahul to take the ashes to Rameswaram and disperse them. Rahul reluctantly accepts her request, but is also eager to visit Goa. Rahul, Bobby and Baman plan to dump the ashes in Goa, but Neetu wants to see him off, forcing Rahul to travel by train. Rahul books a single ticket on the , planning to meet Bobby and Baman along the way, at . However, Rahul forgets to take the ashes while alighting, where he almost misses the train when he returns to collect them. While trying to leave the train, Rahul notices a young woman running to board it and helps her and four men board the moving train, but the train leaves the station before he can get off. Rahul tries to flirt with the woman, who starts communicating by singing of , and explains that the four men are trying to kidnap her. Rahul lends her his phone so that she can contact her friends, but the men with her grab it and throw it off the train. Rahul is annoyed, but says nothing because the men are carrying weapons. Rahul tells the Travelling Ticket Examiner about them, but they push the Examiner into a river below a bridge. A panicked Rahul learns that the four men are her cousins and that her name is Meenalochni “Meenamma” Azhagusundaram. Meenamma is fleeing from a to a gangster Tangaballi, Meenamma’s father Durgeshwara “Durgesh” Azhagusundaram is a powerful mafia kingpin and landlord in . Meenamma takes Rahul to Durgesh and introduces Rahul as her lover. Tangaballi challenges Rahul to a duel that Rahul unknowingly accepts due to his lack of understanding . On the night of the duel, Rahul escapes with the help of a local policeman Shamsher, but he ends up on a boat with smugglers. A gun battle ensues between the police force and the smugglers. The police officers investigate and take Rahul into custody, but Rahul tells his story and ends up back in Komban. Terrified and once again surrounded by Durgesh’s sickle-wielding henchmen, Rahul pretends to take Meenamma hostage and escapes with her in Durgesh’s car, battling Durgesh’s men. When the car breaks down, Rahul and Meenamma quarrel and part ways. Rahul, not knowing which way to go, returns to Meenamma, who takes him to the Vidhamba village. Meenamma tells the villagers that they are a married couple who need protection and rest, to which the villagers agree. Meenamma realises that she has fallen in love with Rahul. When Rahul plans to sneak away, Meenamma argues, not wanting to earn the villagers’ distrust. Tangaballi catches Rahul as he tries to leave, but the villagers help them escape again. Meenamma persuades Rahul to disperse Y. Y.’s ashes and travels with him to Rameswaram, where they complete the rite. On their way back, Rahul realises that he has fallen for Meenamma and does not tell her where they are going. Rahul takes Meenamma back to Durgesh and tries to make him understand and honour Meenamma’s wish, where he also tells Meenamma that he loves her. Rahul tells Tangaballi and his goons that he is ready for the fight. In the fight that follows, Rahul is severely beaten, but emerges victorious. Durgesh and Tangaballi reform, accepting that the love of a common man like Rahul is bigger than their physical ability and political influence. Durgesh allows Rahul to marry Meena. Later, Rahul leaves a message that love knows no regional or language barriers and that with a strong heart, there is no limit to what the common man can achieve. had originally planned to team up with for a remake of the 1982 film, . After the 2011 blockbuster , Shetty had begun writing the script of the film but left it half-finished. The script of was ready for Khan as a back-up, because of the difficulty of obtaining the actor’s filming dates. Upon reading the script, Khan liked the idea and agreed to star in it before the remake, causing remake to be postponed. Shetty said the film is “a hard-core commercial film with a romantic angle. The story is about this man’s travel from Mumbai to Rameshwaram and what happens during the journey.” About 68 minutes of footage were enhanced with by . Khan was the first actor to be approached with the script and was the first lead actor to be signed for the film. Rohit Shetty stated that despite the title, Khan would not play a South Indian in the film. The casting of the lead heroine was the subject of much press speculation; , and were rumoured to be involved. Shetty denied those rumours, stating that the cast would be finalised in April 2012, and that he was going to cast an established actress in the role. In October 2012, it was confirmed that had been signed to play the female lead opposite Khan, and photographs showing Padukone and Khan shooting were released. This was Padukone’s second film opposite Khan, with whom she made her Bollywood debut in the 2007 blockbuster . Starting with this film, which was released on Women’s Day, Khan wished to have the name of his female co-star appear above his own in the credits. was cast to play the role of Padukone’s character’s father, making his debut in Bollywood. Actress was signed in January 2013 for an item number in the film replacing ; both the actresses would eventually go on to star alongside Khan in . Other personalities from , including , , and , appear in minor roles; however, scenes involving the latter two did not make the final cut. The film was initially titled as ( means in Tamil). However, to emphasise on the connection with South India, the film was retitled as with the planned title used as the tagline. Filming on the project began at in Mumbai on 5 October 2012. Additional filming was done at with a minimal crew. Stills of the lead actor were unofficially released in mid-October 2012. In November 2012, the cast and crew went to Goa to begin filming the scenes set there. was used to portray as . A romantic scene on board a train passing next to was also shot. In December 2012, the crew went to to film certain scenes. The also known as Annai Indira Gandhi Bridge, connecting the town of in Tamil Nadu with , and was the scene for the song “Tera Rastaa Chhodoon Na”. In January 2013, a shoot was supposedly scheduled to take place in , but since felt that Ooty was too far from Mumbai, several locations from Ooty were reconstructed on the outskirts of in by the art director Narendra Ruharikar. It took over 40 days and 15 million to build the required sets. Filming in Wai took the entire month of March 2013. A 10-day shooting schedule in , Kerala, began in mid-April 2013; scenes were filmed at Lake, , Wagavara and Kannimala. Filming was stopped for several days because of heavy rainfall, resulting in the schedule being slightly extended until end of the same month. A press conference was held in Munnar. In May 2013, scenes were filmed in . Padukone finished shooting on 25 May 2013. Khan flew to , in May 2013 to film his remaining scenes. Though the film has several Tamil dialogues, Khan said the makers intentionally excluded subtitles to emphasise the language barrier between the Tamil speakers and the lead character. Instead, Padukone’s character translates some of the Tamil dialogues. was produced by , , and under the banner. It was released internationally by . The score of was composed by Amar Mohile; the songs were composed by the duo , and the lyrics were written by and . Recording of the songs began in late October 2012. The track “Ready Steady Po” was recorded in November 2012 by the music’s composers. Several sources said that the director and actor were unsatisfied with the score. The director was reportedly asked to plan for a different musical composition. However, the composers denied these rumours. In mid-April 2013, singer recorded the title track for the film, marking his return to Bollywood for playback after an absence of fifteen years. He said the song celebrated the spirit of togetherness. Initially, Balasubrahmanyam was apprehensive, but chose to sing due to the content and leads of the film. The song “1 2 3 4 Get On The Dance Floor” was released as a promotional single on . On 27 June 2013, the video promo of the song “Titli” was released, and on 11 July 2013, the promo video of ” ” was released. On 19 July 2013, T-Series uploaded a song to its official channel on YouTube; sung by . The song was titled ” – The ‘Thalaivar(r)’ Tribute” in honour of the film actor . On 25 July 2013, a promotional video of the song “Tera Rasta Main Chhodoon Na” was released. The music album was launched on 1 July 2013. The film had paid previews in India on 8 August 2013, with ten to twelve shows at multiplexes. was scheduled to be released in non-traditional international markets. In Peru, it was the first Hindi film to be released on the same day as in India. was also released in Morocco, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, and Israel. The price of tickets for was increased 40 percent above the usual tariff during the weekday shows and up to 20 percent on weekends; although this increase was not uniformly applied in all multiplexes. The film was released in 2,550 cinemas across 3,550 screens in India, and across 700 screens internationally—including 196 screens in North America, 175 in the United Kingdom, 55 in the Middle East, and 30 in Australia—the widest Bollywood release up to that point. A first look of was released on 1 January 2013. A 31-second title track teaser, sung by S. P. Balasubrahmanyam, was released on 23 May 2013. The official trailer of the film was released at an event in Mumbai on 13 June 2013; two days after its launch it exceeded four million views on YouTube. The outfits worn by Khan and Padukone in the film were auctioned; proceeds from the sale were donated to a charity. The auction took place around the day of the film’s release. A app developed by —a Swedish gaming studio—was launched on 2 August 2013 for Android and iOS based smartphones. Khan promoted his film on the reality television shows , , , , and . — ‘s year-end compilation of the most frequent search queries—named the most trending topic of 2013 in India. The film’s satellite television rights were sold to for (US$8.19 million). The agreement was linked to the film’s box office revenue—the first deal of its kind in Indian cinema. If collected over (US$22.19 million) net, then for every 100 million earned after that, the producers would get an additional 20 million. The film had its television premiere on 20 October 2013, and was seen by a record , almost doubling that of the highest rated fiction show. It helped its broadcaster, , to reach the top position among General Entertainment Channels that month. Along with , was initially abandoned by Pakistani distributors and exhibitors because four films were released on the same day. The release dates were postponed to 15 and 9 August, respectively. During its Wai schedule of filming, the film’s unit ran into trouble for using too much water from , in the drought-stricken of . The state’s relief and rehabilitation minister, , addressed the problem. The film’s poster and trailer, released on Twitter and YouTube, were criticised by some Tamil media for their depiction of Tamil ethos. They said Padukone’s heavily accented dialogue resembled a Malayalee accent rather than a Tamil one. Padukone defended the film, saying that it did not parody South Indian culture and that most of the crew, including herself, are South Indians. She later said, “Why would we spoof our own culture?” On 31 July 2013, the Nationalist political party ‘s film wing threatened to disrupt the film’s premiere; it reportedly attempted to dislodge ongoing popular Marathi movies from cinemas that show only one film at a time. The party was upset with reports that the distributors of had demanded prime slots in single-screen cinemas, and at some multiplexes, where the superhit Marathi film (2013) had been popular since 19 July. On 1 August 2013, both the film directors, Rohit Shetty and Sanjay Jadhav were called on by to find a solution. After listening to both parties, Thackeray ruled that if was not removed from single-screen cinemas across the state, then the MNS would not object to the release of in Maharashtra. was released in 10 languages. Upon release, the film’s authenticity was questioned. ‘s character had more similarities to Malayalis despite playing a Tamil character: she uses a nasal accent and wears a white sari. The song ” ” was not considered an apt title since the men wear in the film. received mixed reviews from critics. of gave 4/5 stars and wrote “On the whole, ‘ ‘ has the trademark Rohit Shetty stamp all over. You seek entertainment, entertainment and entertainment in a film like ‘ ‘ and the movie lives up to the hype and hoopla surrounding it.” Rachit Gupta of gave 4/5 stars and wrote “The film’s peppered with humorous set pieces and colourful locales and songs. Shetty makes chettinad-style masala movies. And that’s the perfect description of this film. If you don’t plan to engage in a multi-lateral critique of dramatic elements and narrative, this film can be fun.” Sarita Tanwar Of gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote “This is a treat for all Hindi film lovers. It has all the ingredients you’d expect from a big commercial masala film—big star cast, drama, action, comedy, songs, the car chases and the big finish, all delivered in Shetty’s unapologetic ishtyle …  Overall, this is a bubblegum blockbuster.” Meena Iyer of gave 3.5/5 stars and wrote “Chennai Express is a magnificently mounted film. In an ode to his own cinema—read series or , Rohit Shetty, the director, who has grosser in Bollywood’s 100-crore club, ups the scale for his Eid offering.” Saibal Chatterjee of gave 3/5 stars and wrote “The whole-hearted zeal that SRK and Deepika bring to the table and the steady flow of funny one-liners serve Shetty’s purpose well, turning into a full-on masala film that is completely unapologetic about its intentions. And that is its USP [Unique Selling Point].” gave 3/5 stars, stating that if one ignores the platitudes, the absence of “punch” in the script and predictability, then the person is “on board for a fun ride” with Chennai Express. gave 3/5 stars and wrote “The good news first. ‘ ‘ is a pleasant and likeable film in parts. The bad news is, it does nothing for Shah Rukh Khan’s indomitable star power except to tell us he can still play a 40-year [old] Rahul without faltering.” Abhishek Gupta of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote “The comedy along with the action is rarely served with equal entertainment in today’s cinema. We discern Rohit Shetty for his mass leisure which includes cars fluttering from the unknown corners and comedy which isn’t slapstick but works.” wrote, “Still, given the material, Shetty does more right than wrong…Shetty fashions a Shah Rukh Khan showreel, borrowing bits from his greatest hits, and gives us an unfettered avatar of the star that the star himself has seemed somewhat ashamed, of late, to embrace.” Shubhra Gupta of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote that the film comes up with some genuinely funny moments. She commended Padukone’s looks, although she criticized aspects of her stagecraft skills. Sukanya Verma of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote “Chennai Express evokes a few laughs but otherwise it decides to shift tracks from droll comedy to dreadful drama.” Khalid Mohamed of gave 2.5/5 stars and wrote “Board Chennai Express at your own risk”. of gave 2/5 stars and said the film was a “big, fat” bore. He commented that was a “bloated vanity project”, and felt that the lead actor could have performed better. gave 2/5 stars and wrote ” plays neither to Rohit’s strengths nor to Shah Rukh’s. It’s a strangely sloppy mishmash of cheesy humour, half-hearted romance, half-baked emotion and head-banging action. The film is filled with gigantic men whose size functions as a punch line.” of gave 1/5 stars and wrote “You’ve paid for the ticket? Yes. Now just sit back and suffer.” Raja Sen of gave 1/5 stars and wrote “Shah Rukh Khan yelps and squeaks and shrieks and bares fangs and pouts and, well, exhausts himself overcompensating at every step, despite nobody else in the film following this template.” Rachel Saltz of wrote, ” ‘ feels like a sumptuous meal with carefully chosen wine and tasty appetizers but a botched main course. Money and visual care have been lavished on this Bollywood action-comedy-romance and glossy stars engaged (Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone). But the movie chugs along for most of its 2 hours and 20 minutes searching for comedy and characters in a frantically overplotted story.” Sneha May Francis of wrote, “Rohit Shetty’s s(h)tyle of romance relies heavily on buffoonery and will be applauded mainly by Shah Rukh Khan loyalists”. She added, “Rohit’s carnival-like comedy coaxes some laughs, but can leave you exhausted.” Sneha said that Padukone’s performance “outshines” that of Khan. Ronnie Scheib of wrote, “Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone are ill matched in this overworked comedy/romance/actioner … Shetty’s need to maintain his characters’ romantic heroism constantly grates against his depictions of their ridiculousness.” Simon Foster of the gave 2/5 stars and described it as “a loud, lame-brained romantic comedy from the (very) broad directorial brush of Rohit Shetty, SRK’s over-hyped vehicle sees the charismatic but ageing actor badly miscast and easily overshadowed by his leading lady, Deepika Padukone.” At the time, became the highest-grossing Bollywood film, both in India and around the world, when it collected (US$67.58 million). It currently stands as the worldwide. The film’s gross broke the (US$66.9 million) record set by , according to . The film’s final worldwide gross was 424 ( 72.31 million). During paid previews, performed well, with the Hindi version collecting 67.5 million, surpassing the previous record held by , according to . The film collected 292.5 million on its opening day, making it the second-highest opening day collection behind . The film broke the second and third day box office records, collecting (US$4.51 million), and (US$4.98 million), respectively, and collected ( including paid previews), breaking the previous weekend record set by . set another record for worldwide opening gross, earning (US$27.13 million) in the three-day weekend. The film performed well on Monday, collecting over (US$2.05 million). It grossed (US$1.96 million) on its first Tuesday, becoming Shah Rukh Khan’s highest-grossing film in India. The film grossed (US$2.14 million) on Wednesday. reported that the film grossed (US$3.24 million) net on Thursday, taking its first week total (including paid previews) to (US$24.93 million), beating the previous record of . It had a worldwide gross of (US$42.66 million) in the first seven days. The film collected (US$4.05 million) on its second weekend, taking the total domestic net to (US$28.67 million) , and also became the second-highest-grossing Bollywood film in ten days with a worldwide gross of (US$53.59 million) . The film earned (US$31.57 million) in two weeks and had collected (US$33.11 million) after its third weekend in the domestic market. It grossed (US$2.73 million) in its third week, bringing up its total to (US$34.13 million). broke the domestic net record set by in its fourth weekend and added around (US$979,558.96) in week four to take the total to (US$35.15 million). The film collected (US$59,729.2) on its sixth week, for a final total of (US$35.5 million). The film’s lifetime domestic distributor share stands at (US$19.63 million), breaking s previous record of (US$18.26 million). also broke overseas records; during paid previews in the UK the film collected more than any first day of a Bollywood film in the UK. The film broke opening weekend records in foreign territories, taking in (US$8.61 million), including record collections from key markets in the US ($2.22 million), the UAE (AED 7.73 million) and the UK (£934,118). set a record for opening weekends overseas, grossing . It was also successful in Pakistan, where it collected (equivalent to 94 million or US$320,000 in 2021) in its opening weekend. By 18 August, the film had broken all box office records in by grossing over (US$140,000). The film earned (US$12.29 million) in just nine days in overseas markets. By the second weekend, it had grossed approximately . had grossed about by its third weekend overseas and by the fourth weekend. By the fifth weekend, the film had grossed about abroad. It was still collecting in its sixth weekend, taking its total to . A titled , based on the film and featuring Shahrukh Khan & Deepika Padukone, was developed by , – ‘s digital wing, and launched on 24 July 2013 for systems. In the game, the player rides a virtual roller-coaster, fighting off goons and dodging obstacles while they attempt to collect over 10,000 coins in order to unlock Padukone’s game avatar.</p>