Its Kabali daa

“Salman Khan releases his movie on Eid because it is a holiday; Rajinikanth releases his movie and it becomes a holiday” – this meme has been doing rounds in social media, and fans have expressed their frenzy in that many words awaiting their favourite star’s movie to release.

And as the movie is all set to release tomorrow, the excitement has risen to feverish pitch, and the Twitter handles #Kabali and @KabaliJuly22 are trending like no body’s business.

The craze for Thalaiva Rajinikanth is far reaching and encompasses the entire South of India. All of Rajini films are dubbed into Telugu and fare extremely well in Telugu land, and there is a huge chunk of fan base from this part of the world, who, move heaven and earth to watch the Superstar’s film on first day - first show.

No wonder you have the shows booked totally on the first day of the release of ‘Kabali’ in theatres across Hyderabad, despite the fact that it is a Friday release, and not necessarily a holiday for all and sundry.

So, how are the fans managing? Our guess is that the leave letters would have by now piled up in offices - “I applied for leave 10 days ago citing a family function, I wouldn’t miss the first show for anything in the world,” revealed Naveen, who works for a software company, and would wish to stay anonymous.

There are a few start-up companies in Chennai that announced a holiday on Friday, riding on the ‘Kabali’ wave. Not to be left behind is Hyderabad-based Progress Software; the Managing Director Ramesh Loganathan, a self-proclaimed fan of Shivaji aka Rajini has planned an outing on July 22, and employees are all going to go out for lunch followed by the screening. “We booked an entire screen at Inorbit, Madhapur,” he says.

There are “Fans”, and there are “Super fans” of Rajini. Ramesh belongs to the second category. He has been wearing ‘Kabali’ shirts since over a week, and is looking forward to Friday – and the release of the film. “There are two outings actually.

A bunch of startups have teamed together, and we are all going to go to PVR in a ‘Kabali’ branded bus. We made bulk bookings to watch the Tamil version for the morning show,” he shares. “I got to watch the film on big screen, so that would be at Prasadz on Saturday,” he adds.

On the other hand there is Pan Asia’s branded flight that is flying around 170 of Rajini fans to Chennai to watch the first day first show of the movie. Vishal Fernandes, IT professional, food and travel blogger from Hyderabad has been invited to be on the flight, and he is travelling to Bengaluru on Thursday.

“I am super excited about the trip. I had already decided to travel to Chennai to watch the film, and this invite only adds to the fun. We would also be getting to taste special menu devised around Rajinikanth,” he shares.
Satya Pamula, a PR professional from the city is already in Chennai.

He has his tickets booked for a screening at the famous Sathyam Cinemas, and says the atmosphere there is electric. “The streets and walls are full of Kabali posters. You can feel the excitement in the air. I am looking forward to watch the film on the first day at Sathyam, which is the biggest theatre in Chennai,” he shares.

The film is making news since the day one. For fans it is all about the Thalaiva fever. Young filmmakers are looking forward to much more. “I am watching ‘Kabali’ on the first day and first show because of the combination of Superstar Rajini and the young director Pa Ranjith.

Till now Rajnikanth has only acted with known film directors and Ranjith is new and his approach is not very much commercial but very realistic. I am very excited about it,” shares Harish Ganeshan, associate director, ‘Cheekati Rajyam’.

Another aspiring filmmaker, Darshan Shanmugavel, sums it up -“I am a crazy fan of Superstar Rajinikanth. From the film ‘Muthu’ I’m watching his movies first day, first show. Curiosity increased when he started working with new vibrant director Ranjith.

I’ve got information about Jazz cinemas’ servers going down because 20,000 users opened the online booking at a time. Previous record was for Vedhalam – 5,000 viewers. Again and again Rajinikanth proves he is the only Superstar.”

By: Rajeshwari Kalyanam

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Rajini effect in Bengaluru, Chennai: Holiday on Kabali release day