The year's biggest box office event,
Endhiran's first day, first show, kept its date. On Friday, the big-budget, multi-lingual Rajinikanth starrer, with an 'official' budget of
162 crore and 'unofficial budget based on market rumour of
250-300 crore, opened to packed houses, with tickets sold out days in advance.
Industry sources told
Business Standard they expect
Endhiran to rake in around 400-450 crore in the first month. The movie was released by Sun Pictures, part of media mogul Kalanidhi Maran's Sun Network, and Ficus Entertainment in 2,250 screens worldwide. This includes 500 screens in Tamil Nadu, 350 in Andhra Pradesh and 700 in north India.
The movie was released in three languages simultaneously. While in Tamil, it was titled
Endhiran, in Telegu and Hindi it is
Robot. For the first time, a movie from India will be dubbed in Japanese.
Film industry sources say each of the cinema halls worldwide screening the movie will have an average capacity of around 400 seats, totalling an audience of around 900,000 people per screen every day. Some multiplexes are screening up to 45 shows a day.
In
Endhiran, Rajinikanth plays a double role: that of a robot and a scientist. Scientist Rajini develops a robot with artificial intelligence for the development of the country. It behaves like a human being, writes romantic poems and falls in love with Aishwarya Rai. The villain tries to capture the robot and gain control of it due to its extraordinary intelligence. The robot is saved from falling into the hands of the evil forces with the help of scientist Rajini.
Rajinikanth was born Shivaji Rao Gaekwad. Starting life as a conductor in the early 1970s, he drove the then Bangalore Transport Service's route 10A. Raja Bahadur, now a retired bus driver, was Rajinikanth's close friend and was instrumental in his entering the movie industry.
"If it was not for his unstinting encouragement and support," Rajinikanth was quoted as saying, "Shivaji Rao would have been a retired conductor living a small home in Hanumanathanagar in south Bangalore instead of becoming Rajinikanth."
Rajinikanth made his debut 35-years ago with an inconsequential role in Tamil film
Apoorva Raagangal (1975),
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directed by Kailasam Balachander. A vast majority of Rajinikanth's successful movies were released in the '80s and '90s, and include