While SRK’s last film, Pathaan’s box-office collections hit the roof, the opening day frenzy for Jawan is sure promising much more

Early morning shows, crackers and confetti, dancing on drumbeats, offering garlands and milk to King Khan’s huge posters, Jawan got off to an exuberant start on Thursday morning. The Shah Rukh Khan-starrer saw audiences streaming into theatres across the country — all the way from Srinagar to Chennai!

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The pan-India thriller in Hindi, Tamil and Telugu is directed by South Indian filmmaker Atlee, and if scenes inside and outside theatres in cities such as Jaipur, Jammu, Mumbai and Kolkata are any indication, this one is bound to create a buzz louder that his last film Pathaan.

Bye boycott

Ahead of the film’s release, #BoycottJawan trended on social media for a while with some users calling for the film’s boycott because it is distributed by Red Giant Movies in Tamil Nadu. The company is owned by Tamil Nadu minister Udhayanidhi Stalin, who has courted massive controversy for his comments against Sanatan Dharma. SRK’s fans on X hit out at the actor’s detractors, saying the film will beat their negative campaign to become a blockbuster. The controversy, however, didn’t appear to gather much momentum.

Early start

Theatres in several cities went ahead with their plans for early morning shows to maximise on the excitement and Janmashtami, a holiday in many parts of the country. In Kolkata, for instance, the first show was at 5 am and in Jaipur at 6 am. Outside south Kolkata’s Asoka theatre, fans raised slogans in support of Shah Rukh and decorated the film’s giant poster with garlands. They also struck SRK’s famous open arm pose for the cameras. Some fans even brought posters of the actor and arranged marigold petals to form their message, “Love SRK.” One fan performed a puja at the theatre, putting a tilak on the star’s face on the poster. “This movie will perform even better than Pathaan,” said one fan. “I didn’t sleep last night,” added another.

In Jaipur, some eager viewers turned up at a theatre in white t-shirts with the poster of Jawan printed on them. They played the song Zinda Banda and danced to their hearts content. In Srinagar, some eager morning viewers, dressed in Jawan t-shirt hit the theatres in all excitement. In Noida’s Waves theatre, the audience erupted in whistles and cheers every time Shah Rukh made an appearance. In Mumbai, fans queued up in large numbers at the Gaiety Galaxy in Bandra and were seen frantically dancing to drum beats inside a theatre. Fans were also seen forming a human pyramid outside a theatre at a 6 am show. There were similar scenes inside a cinema hall in Chennai where fans broke into whistles. At Bengaluru’s Urvashi Cinema, a huge gathering was seen for the first show of the film. And in Hyderabad, hundreds of SRK fans gathered at the Devi Theatre, placed large cut-outs of the superstar, threw confetti and danced their hearts out before the first show early on Thursday. Many donned SRK’s looks from the movie. At Liberty cinema in Delhi’s Karol Bagh, some fans clicked selfies with the film’s poster.

As for Chandigarh, Raj Juneja, distributer in tricity, informs, “Chandigarh has seen unprecedented footfall for Jawan even for early morning shows. At Elante Mall, quite a number of people showed up for the first-day-first-show at 6:15 am, which is the earliest show for any film ever in recent times. Jawan has got plenty of shows and most of them are going houseful.”

SRK kept awake

Taking to Twitter, SRK, on Thursday morning, dropped a sweet message for fans, assuring them that the film is packed with loads of entertainment. “Beqaraar ho gaye ab toh aa hi jaiye….ghar waalon ko bhi saath laiye. Aap ko humaari kasam….!!! Ready with our offering of love for all of you. Hope you all are entertained,” he wrote.

Theatres have been jam-packed since morning. In fact, several of his fans flocked Mumbai’s iconic Gaiety Galaxy theatre at 6 am to watch the first-day-first-show. On a page dedicated to SRK, a video was shared where fans can be seen chanting ‘India ki shaan Shah Rukh Khan’ in unison. The caption on the post read, “Its 5:35 am and we have started the celebration for our historic 6 am show…mass hysteria…” SRK took notice of the tweet and replied, “Love you boys and girls, I hope you enjoy the entertainment. Kept awake to see you go to the theatre. Big love and thanks.”

— Agencies