Fan following ensures houseful Friday for Shah Rukh Khan

Kolkata: Abhikendu Deb Roy's face fell after he reached Menoka last Sunday to book 24 tickets for the first-day-first-show of Fan. "Advance bookings had started at 10am and we reached at 11, yet we didn't get 24 tickets. They were all gone," said the third-year engineering student at Heritage Institute of Technology. He and 23 friends, all die-hard Shah Rukh Khan fans, had been planning the first-day-first-show Fan watch since March. After a frenzied exchange of messages on a "Fan" WhatsApp group, they landed up at Menoka on Sunday to book their tickets, only to be told that all Friday shows were sold out.

But Abhikendu and gang wouldn't give up until they found tickets for the first-day-first-show, this time at Priya. Yes, all 24 of them. "It's a special film that we all want to watch together," said Abhikendu on the eve of the big release. "We can't wait for Friday!" was the overall mood among the entire SRK faithful, with most pulling out all the stops to keep a first-day date with the man who storms into screens with the promise of a double bill - as superstar Aryan Khanna and his obsessed fan Gaurav.

The result? Single-screen theatres are chock-a-block and multiplexes are fast filling up. "Shah Rukh Khan films traditionally get a strong opening in Calcutta, but Fan is a little more special because almost all shows for the weekend, barring the night shows, were sold out on Sunday itself. Advance bookings for Fan have been much higher than for SRK's previous two releases Dilwale and Happy New Year," said Pranab Roy of Menoka. The Fan story is the same at the city's single-screen theatres, with most sporting houseful boards even before the first frames light up screens. Priya was among the earliest to have its shows sold out as soon as bookings opened on Sunday. "All our three shows on Friday are full and even Saturday and Sunday are looking very good," was the word from proprietor Arijit Dutta. The twist in the sold-out story is that Shah Rukh, hailed as a marketing wiz in Bollywood, hasn't gone on a promotional blitzkrieg for Fan as he is known to do for his films. An intriguing premise, superior technical expertise in terms of make-up and visual effects and SRK in a double role have assured a bumper opening across 3,500 screens in India. The Maneesh Sharma-directed film opens in 200 screens in Bengal alone. "The response has been fantastic since we opened bookings on Sunday. The standalone theatres have definitely more houseful shows, but the multiplexes have a larger number of shows and so demand has been evenly distributed over many shows. We in Calcutta have always been a little more fond of Shah Rukh Khan and that shows in the bookings for almost every SRK film," said Kushagra Jalan of Jalan Distributors, the regional distributors of Fan. Multiplexes, riding high on the bumper response to The Jungle Book, are looking to SRK to push footfall through the roof, perhaps beyond the first weekend. "The first two shows of Fan on Friday are sold out across our properties, including Dhanbad and Bhubaneswar. The rest of the shows are filling up fast and we are looking at a strong weekend. Overall, the advance ticket sales have been heartening and we expect that to increase once Friday rolls in," said Subhasis Ganguli, regional director (east), INOX. With no big Bolly release over the next few weeks and Mowgli and his jungle mates being the only strong competition, Aryan and Gaurav look set to give 2016 its biggest earner. "From its chartbuster Jabra Fan to its unconventional storyline, Fan has everything going for it. But the biggest draw is Shah Rukh in two completely different roles. This curiosity will definitely result in big numbers," said Mumbai-based trade analyst Kumar Mohan. -The Telegraph Calcutta