BOX OFFICE: Paid Previews Of ‘Chennai Express’ House-Full!

This year's most awaited film, 'Chennai Express', directed by Rohit
Shetty and starring Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone, is finally
released today. As expected, the box office anticipation is extremely
high.

Produced by Shah Rukh Khan's banner
Red Chillies Productions, 'Chennai
Express' is probably one of the biggest
Bollywood releases this year.
Expectations are already sky- high, with
the film grabbing eyeballs everywhere. Add to that is the festive season, and it
sure looks like the 'Chennai Express'
team has a true-blue winner on their
hands.

We spoke to a few top officials at multiplexes and single screen theatres,
to get a sense of what they predict will
be the opening for the film:

As Cinemax Deputy GM-Corporate Communications and Public Relations Mr.
Girish Wankhede says, "The buzz for
'Chennai Express' is awesome. For today,
all the paid previews are going housefull, while tomorrow also there
is heavy bookings. There is also block bulk
bookings for the weekend, so we predict
for the first two days the occupancy will
be a full 100%. Saturday and Sunday also
looks promising, with the occupancy will
be not less than 90%."

"I won't comment on which film's record
would be broken but I can confidently
say that Chennai Express is going to
create many records for sure, starting
with Paid Previews."

Elaborating on the reason for the
inclusion of paid previews, he said: "We
are glad to screen 10-12 shows on
Thursday itself for two reasons. First and
foremost the buzz is very high and it
makes sense to capitalize on that. Secondly, there is no other
blockbuster in the running that can't be moved. From Friday onwards
there would be an
average of 20 shows at all our major
properties."

A spokesperson of a leading single
screen theatre in Bangalore, Rex
Theatres, agreed with Mr. Wankhede by
saying that buzz is extremely positive.
"Since the film is a festive release, and
add to that it is a big budget Shah Rukh Khan-starrer, buzz is tremendous.
Advance booking trends have been very
encouraging, as the preview shows this
evening are almost sold out. Tomorrow
being a holiday for Eid, we expect
nothing less than an average 90-95% occupancy."