Chennai Express : Lesser Known Facts

It may come as a shock to many that Deepika Padukone was not the first choice for this Rohit Shetty film. In fact the actress of Shetty's ‘Golmaal’ series, Kareena was the first choice for the film. However when Kareena could not give nod due to her busy schedule, Rohit went ahead with Deepika Padukone. In an interview with Pinkvilla, Kareena said, "Rohit really wanted me in Chennai Express but I was busy doing Talaash. So I am fine with that."

This was the first time when an actress was credited ahead of the actor in the movie. Deepika's name comes first under credits followed by Shah Rukh's name. This was done on SRK's insistence. On International Women's Day, Shah Rukh declared that henceforth actress' name will come first followed by his name during film credits. The film itself was released on International Women's Day.

South siren Priyamani shook a leg with Shah Rukh in the song '1234'. The song emerged as one of the most popular dance numbers of 2013. Very few know of Priyamani's connection to Bollywood. This south siren is Bollywood's top actress Vidya Balan's second cousin. Priyamani has also won the National Award for the Tamil film 'Paruthi Veeran'.

As per a report in Dailybhaskar, 'Chennai Express' was not the first choice as the title of the film. In fact, Rohit Shetty wanted the film name to have a Southern touch. And thus 'Ready Steady Po' was the first choice as the film's title. But later to emphasize on the film's Southern connection and to highlight SRK and Deepika's train sequence the film was named 'Chennai Express'. 'Ready Steady Po' was then used as the tagline.

Makers of 'Chennai Express' targeted android apps too for their film promotions. An android game was launched a few days before the release of the movie. The game had SRK protecting himself from a southern villain. The game was a big hit as soon as it entered the market. This was the first time filmmakers had targeted mobile apps for their film promotions.

Chennai Express surprised everyone with its bumper opening. As per a report in Koimoi, the film collected Rs 50 lacs in its 6th weekend and thus the overall collection came out to be Rs 226.70 crores. 'Chennai Express' also emerged as the top earner among Bollywood movies worldwide. The film left behind '3 Idiots', which had made an overall collection of Rs 386 crores. The film did phenomenally well in Egypt too.