Superstar Rajinikanth's 'Kabali' hits screens; fans disappointed as tickets sold out

Chennai: Taking the 'Kabali' mania to another level, southern megastar Rajinikanth's much-awaited movie Kabali – a gangster drama - released on Friday in nearly 10,000 screens worldwide.

One of Asia's highest paid actors, Rajinikanth is considered one of the most bankable stars in India.

Even before its release, Kabali has raked in some USD 30 million in film rights sales. 

It will also be dubbed in Telugu, Hindi and Malay.

With excitement among Rajinikanth's fans at its peak, some major companies in Chennai and Bengaluru had already declared a holiday today and given their employees free tickets for the film.

One firm said it had declared a holiday to "avoid piled up leave requests to the HR department".

A Bangalore-based company said it did the same to "avoid sick leaves, mobile switch offs and mass bunks".

However, a lot of Rajinikanth fans are hugely disappointed as tickets for first three days have been completely sold out.  

"I had been trying for the tickets from Tuesday and the tickets are now sold in black for Rs 1000 and above," said a disappointed fan, who has been waiting outside a theatre in Chennai for more than five hours.

Unlike many, it is not the first day first show that fans want right now, all they want is to grab a ticket in the coming days.

"The first three days of the ticket has been completely sold out. All that I want is one ticket next week. Most of the tickets have been brought out by corporates is what theatre owners have told us," said another annoyed fan.

While most of the tickets have been blocked for the corporates, fans question about the state of a common man.

Fans have also raised concern over the surge pricing of tickets that are sold in black by some of the theatre owners.

Meanwhile, some fans have even made an emotional appeal to Rajinikanth and producer Kalaipuli S Dhanu to ensure that tickets are sold at decent price so that commoners can watch it.