India's costliest film, not from Bollywood, opens

By Krittivas Mukherjee

MUMBAI (Reuters Life!) - Rioting for tickets to the first show, frenzied fans bathing their hero's cutout in milk -- India's most expensive film opened to huge anticipation on Friday, and it's not from Bollywood.

Made at a cost of over $15 million, a huge budget by Indian standards, the Tamil language "Sivaji -- The Boss," has generated enormous interest with tickets sold out for weeks in the south.

The hero of the film is Rajnikanth, a regional star whose flamboyance is unequalled by Bollywood actors and who may have even more fans than India's best-known star Amitabh Bachchan.

The story of the film was kept a closely guarded secret, further piquing the curiosity of the 57-year-old actor's millions of followers.

Fans milled around cinemas screening "Sivaji" from early morning with cutouts and posters of the dark-skinned, heavy-lidded hero whose unique acting style is characterized by a trademark gesture: toss a cigarette in the air, catch it in his lips, then light it with a match struck on a shirt sleeve.

Posters show the actor sporting various hairdos, including a blonde one, standing in a strutting pose beside a young heroine.

"First day, first show. Nothing less when it is Rajnikanth's film," said Mayilraj, a middle-aged fan of the actor waiting to watch the new film.

"I have tickets for every day for the next one week. I have different sets of friends to watch the film with."