It was Rajni mania everywhere on Friday, with masses across south India standing in serpentine queues to get a ticket for the Tamil superstar’s latest release Sivaji: the Boss, the most expensive film ever made in India.

Whether it was Chennai, Thiruvananthapuram or Hyderabad, scenes outside theatres were the same — people queuing up since the wee hours of the morning, determined not to miss a “first day first show” of the long awaited film from a man who is hailed as one of the country’s top showbiz superstars.

The popularity of Rajnikant, one of India’s highest paid actors, is often compared to Bollywood superstar Amitabh Bachchan.

Inside packed theatres in Chennai, audiences watched the film — Rajni’s first after two years — in rapt silence, in contrast to the wild cheering, dancing and sloganeering witnessed outside earlier.

“I have only two words to describe Sivaji - success, spectacular”, said Vishwanathan, a driver who spent nearly 30 per cent of his monthly salary to watch the preview on Thursday night.

1,500 in black

According to Rajni, the film’s message to society was that black money bred more grudge, jealousy, greed and grief. The film is commanding a whopping Rs 1,500 per ticket in the black market in most south Indian cities.
And moviegoers want to see the much-hyped film not once but several times over.

Rajni, the hero who sports perhaps a record number of hairdos in the film, would seem to have met every expectation from every section of his wide-ranging audience. He is hugely popular even in South-East and East Asia, particularly in Japan.

While Tamil Nadu Chief Minister saw a special screening Monday, AIADMK supremo J Jayalalitha caught the film on the first day of its release — a move seen as a reconciliation of sorts between Rajnikant and her.

Packed houses in Delhi 

The national capital wasn’t far behind. Tickets for Sivaji were sold out till Wednesday at PVR multiplex, said Shalu Sabharwal, vice president (sales and marketing), of PVR, India.

“We opened booking only on Thursday and all tickets were sold out on the first day itself.” Sivaji ran to packed houses despite Jhoom Barabar Jhoom, a much-anticipated multi-starrer by Shaad Ali, releasing on the same day.

Even politicians and film stars in the national capital did not miss the opportunity to catch the long-awaited movie made with a whopping budget of over Rs 600 million ($15 million). There were even special screenings for VIPs like Finance Minister P Chidambaram.

In Andhra Pradesh, the Telugu version of the film was released in 300 theatres with tickets being booked for the next 15 days in all cinema halls.

Record

The film distributors of Andhra Pradesh have bought the movie’s rights for a whopping Rs 180 million for the first round of three weeks, breaking the record of Telugu mega star Chiranjeevi’s films.

For the first time in Thiruvananthapuram, cinemas ran their first show of the day at 5 am and that too to full house. The release of Rajnikant’s Sivaji in Kerala could not have been more dramatic as hundreds of fans queued in front of the Aroma and New Aroma Theatres in Palakkad around midnight to watch the early morning show.

86 theatres

The film was released simultaneously in 86 theatres in the State, a record number even a Malayalam film could not dream of.

Police had a tough time controlling the crowds as the movie was released in four theatres in the state capital.In Palakkad, the arrival of the film reel on Thursday was a tumultuous event when it was taken atop a caparisoned elephant in a procession by the fans.

As expected, Rajnikant fans coming out of the theatres said the film was as “thrilling” as any of the star’s earlier films.