Chennai Express

“Get on the train baby!” CHENNAI EXPRESS! CROSSING 200 CRORES... is making buzz all around the world.

 The first look of Chennai Express was revealed on 1 January 2013. A thirty-one seconds 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 and has crossed the 4 million views mark on YouTube just two days after its launch. Why? Just because of stardom cast? Let’s find out... if there is anything in this film actually!

PUBLICITY FACTS: (1) A platform running game based on the film, developed by Disney UTV's digital wing, titled Chennai Express: Escape from Rameshwaram was launched on 24 July 2013 for android systems and featuring Shahrukh Khan & Deepika Padukone. It takes the player on a roller-coaster ride where he has to fight off goons and dodge obstacles like trucks, buses, cars, coconut carts, etc. to collect more than 10,000 coins so as to unlock Deepika Padukone's game avatar.

(2) The outfits donned by Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in the film was auctioned, and proceedings from the sale was gone for a charity. The auction took place around the day of its release.

(3) Adopting an aggressive stance on Wednesday, 31 July 2013 the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's Film Wing threatened to disrupt and stop its release on 8 August as it reportedly attempted to dislodge ongoing popular Marathi movies from single-screen cinemas in the state. 

(4) The song "1 2 3 4 get on the dance floor" was released as a promotional single on World Music Day.

(5) The banned controversial singer yo-yo honey Singh appearing at the end and giving a tribute to rajnikant was also part of publicity stunt. Rohit Shetty has targeted the southern region this time just as he had targeted the maharastrian region in singhum. He is good at making regional movies I suppose; e.g. son of sardar.

"Practically looking at it, box-office success has nothing to do with the script of a film. The biggest factor for this is the star power, which drives the market. Factors like release date, number of screens, and mass appeal also play an important role in the kind of business of a film does," said Adarsh, film critic.

ERRORS:

[1]Rahul takes the urn from his house and keeps in his bag. Later at the railway station, his grandmother hands it to him again. [2]When Rahul and Meena head for Rameshwaram, they are shown actually to go in the opposite direction with the Pamban Bridge on the right. Again, a while later when they are shown going back from Rameshwaram, it was again in the opposite direction. [3]Just before getting down from the train to Deepika's village (Khamman) Sharhrukh and Deepika are shown in Sleeper Class (SL) Coach. When they get down, they get down from General (II) Class coach. In India General Coach are not joint thus there is no way you can go from one coach to other.

In short the reason why it has earned more than 200 crores: stardom, publicity, targeting one sect, using name of rajnikant. The movie has the same plot like many other movies but just because of the cast and manipulative marketing it has made its place. The good part was the colorful background, few lovely songs and some vehicle stunts. But it’s bad that there are movies out there far better than this but just because name game is the rule they don’t make it through. People nowadays are also wanting nothing else but entertainment and fun… 

Vitasta Ganjoo