Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone snapped on the sets of Chennai Express
Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone on the sets of Chennai Express
Chennai
Chennai, (formerly known as Madras, the official name until 1996) is the capital of the Indian state of Tamil Nadu. Located on the Coromandel Coast of the Bay of Bengal, it is one of the largest cultural, economic and educational centres of south India. According to the 2011 Indian census, it is the sixth-most populous city and fourth-most populous urban agglomeration in India. The city together with the adjoining regions constitutes the Chennai Metropolitan Area, which is the 36th-largest urban area by population in the world. The traditional and de facto gateway of South India, Chennai is among the most-visited Indian cities by foreign tourists. It was ranked the 43rd-most visited city in the world for the year 2015. The Quality of Living Survey rated Chennai as the safest city in India. Chennai attracts 45 percent of health tourists visiting India, and 30 to 40 percent of domestic health tourists. As such, it is termed “India’s health capital”. Chennai has the fifth-largest urban economy of India.
Chennai Express
Chennai Express, is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film (directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by Ronnie Screwvala), Siddharth Roy Kapur, Gauri Khan and Karim Morani, based on a story by K. Subash, with a screenplay written by Yunus Sajawal and dialogues by Farhad-Sajid. The film stars Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul Mithaiwala, a man who accidentally boards the eponymous train and journeys from Mumbai to Rameswaram, falling in love with the daughter of a local don, played by Deepika Padukone. Nikitin Dheer and Sathyaraj play supporting roles. It was released with subtitles in English, French, Spanish, Arabic, German, Hebrew, Dutch, Turkish and Malay.
The first planned collaboration between Khan and Shetty was a remake of Angoor (1982). The script of Chennai Express, which was initially written as a backup project for Khan, was chosen instead. Conceived as a “commercial” romance, the film was originally titled Ready Steady Po. Filming began in Mehboob Studio in October 2012 and was completed by May 2013. A large part of the film was set in Ooty, for which sets were constructed in Wai. The soundtrack for Chennai Express was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with the background score being composed by Amar Mohile. UTV Motion Pictures came on board as producer and distributor, marking its first active project with Khan, 9 years after Swades.
Chennai Express was released theatrically in overseas markets on 8 August 2013 and a day later in India. The film received mixed reviews from critics. Regardless, it broke several box office records in India and abroad, becoming the quickest film to collect ₹1 billion (US$14 million) net domestically. The film surpassed 3 Idiots to become the highest-grossing Bollywood film worldwide at that point. As of March 2018, it is the eleventh-highest-grossing Bollywood film worldwide.
