Chennai: As the clock ticks for Tiger's roar on the silver screen, the "first day first show" (FDFS) tickets in theatres across the world are getting booked at lightning speed for the Rajinikanth-starrer 'Jailer.' The punchy "Hukum-Tiger ka Hukum" (Tiger's order) one-liner from the teaser has set the tone for what seems to be a pulsating action flick, even as the Superstar's return as 'Tiger' Muthuvel Pandian is being welcomed by the FDFS mania that is sweeping across.
With less than 24 hours to go for the release of the Nelson Dilipkumar-directed movie, insiders inform that the first day first show tickets are flying off the shelf.
Fans have taken to Twitter to share screenshots of fully booked halls in their respective cities. Even in cities like Chandigarh fans report a full house.
"It is a Rajinikanth film, of course it will be ushered in with celebrations. We don't have fan shows any more like before, but that is not dampening the spirit of the fans. The movie is being shown in 900 screens across Tamil Nadu and all of them wear a festive look," Tirupur Subramaniam, film distributor and head of Tamil Nadu's Theatre Owners' Association, told PTI.
Subramaniam, who owns Sri Sakthi cinemas in Tiruppur and also controls about 58 cinemas in the Coimbatore region, said usually it is a given that movies of Rajnikanth are more profitable than others.
The official handle of PVR Cinemas has claimed that over 1.3 lakh tickets are already booked in its theatres across the country.
Ashish Saksena, COO-Cinemas at BookMyShow, said of films that are being released the upcoming weekend – which collides with a long weekend and multiple holidays including the national holiday for Independence Day on August 15 -- 'Jailer' so far has amassed nearly 900,000 tickets on BookMyShow.
According to him, apart from ‘Jailer’ other films that are slated for release are "OMG 2" (45,000), "Gadar 2" (300,000) in Hindi and "Bhola Shankar" (70,000).
"The advance bookings for each of the four films have commenced at different junctures and therefore a comparison between the audience interest will not be justified, especially given the variety in the quantum of screenings available. However, if we look at each of these in isolation to understand the excitement around each film, so far superstar Rajinikanth-starrer Jailer has amassed nearly 9 lakh tickets on BookMyShow," said Saksena.
In some theatres the first show of 'Jailer' starts early in the morning. Kavitha Theatre in Kochi, Kerala, is screening first show at 6.15 am on Friday. In Mumbai, 6 am first show is fully booked, tweeted Thalaivar North Fan Club (@ThalaivaNFC).
Another Twitter user Achilles (@Searching4ligh1) tweeted that Japan, which even have fans learning Tamil because of Rajinikanth (a Japanese singing a Rajinikanth song was attached as proof for this claim) had a very limited release this time, and therefore all shows are already fully booked.
Meanwhile, a Coimbatore-based restaurant, Le Hive, allowed its employees enjoy FDFS without any hassles.
Jayakrishna T J, a representative of Le Hive told PTI that the management decided to declare a half day holiday so that the staff can catch up the first day, first show at 9 am.
"This way, we do not have to deal with a flurry of sudden sick leaves or phones running out of battery," quipped Jayakrishna. He also added the company is providing the staff with even free tickets to the first show.
Fans in Tamil Nadu held prayers for the success of the film, slated to have been made on a big budget.
Directed by Nelson Dilipkumar, 'Jailer' also stars Mohanlal and Jackie Shroff, although the roles that they are playing have been kept out of the limelight so far. The ensemble includes Ramya Krishnan, Tamannah, Vinayakan and comedian Yogi Babu. It has music by Anirudh Ravichander.
Sun Pictures has produced the film.
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