Here's why Chennai Express will get the BIGGEST OPENING EVER

Shah Rukh Khan's latest film Chennai Express is all set to race ahead at the box office and break all records when it releases on August 9. Here's why.

1. Shah Rukh Khan 

The magnitude of SRK's celebrity is unfathomable.

His last home production Ra.One may have ended up as a fiasco and Jab Tak Hai Jaan may have had to make do with lukewarm response but the buzz for Chennai Express has been bigger than for any other film in the recent past.

The Singham director's track record speaks volumes of his skill.

Shetty has made only one flop, Sunday, in his decade-old career as a director.

SRK and Deepika came together onscreen in 2007 for Om Shanti Om.

Much has happened to the young actress's career since then. After Cocktail, Race 2 and Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani, Chennai Express just keeps adding to her list of hits.

Whether it’s Kamal Haasan and Rati Agnihotri in Ek Duuje Ke Liye, Mehmood and Kishore Kumar  in Padosan or Rohit Roy’s wonderful short film Rice Plate starring Shabana Azmi and Naseeruddin Shah, films that play on the cultural differences between North India and South India have always clicked with the audience in a big way.

Remember the immensely popular Chaiyyan chaiyyan from Dil Se?

And  the epic Dilwale Dulhaniya Le Jayenge climax where Rahul pulls Simran into the railway compartment?

And that memorable sequence in Ashutosh Gowariker’s Swades where a little boy on  a railway platform runs after Shah Rukh’s speeding train to return the change for a bottle of mineral water?

There's also SRK’s final journey by train to his beloved’s doorsteps before he breathes his last in Sanjay Bhansali’s Devdas.

The star shares a very special bond with the railways.

Films set in trains or in and around railway stations have always fascinated Indian viewers.

Om Prakash as the station master in Julie, Vijay Anand and Jaya Bhaduri’s final embrace on a railway station in Kora Kagaz, Ravikant Nagaich’s suspense thriller The Train and even Pakeezah, where Raj Kumar first sees Meena Kumar’s feet in a railway compartment, are still etched in our memory.

The extremely catchy songs in Chennai Express have already topped charts.

Musician duo Vishal-Shekhar are in fine form, recreating the Ra.One music magic.

It’s that time of the year when a whole lot of moviegoers rush to see a Salman Khan starrer.

There's a big film waiting for them this year too. Only, it stars SRK instead of Salman.

Besides Hindi, the film opens with subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Turkish and Malay. It is scheduled to open in Morocco, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, France, Peru and Israel this Friday.

We’ve seen Ajay Devgn do Rohit Shetty-directed stunts.

Now, we will get to see Shah Rukh try out some of those stunts.

Shah Rukh Khan fans be forewarned.

No SRK starrer for at least a year and a half -- Farah Khan’s Happy New Year won't hit theatres before Christmas 2014.

Until then, happy viewing.