<i>Sivaji</i> drawing crowds in TGV Tebrau City, JB

Showtimes

News

Sivaji drawing crowds in TGV Tebrau City, JB

Writer: Cammy Zulkifli

Sivaji quickly selling out tickets for weekend shows.

18 Jun – Indian blockbuster, Sivaji The Boss, has been drawing unexpected crowds across the nation since its official simultaneous worldwide release on 15 June 2007. The movie, starring South Indian superstar Rajinikanth, has already accumulated record-breaking first day collections of RM560,000 in Malaysia alone, a new record for a Tamil movie in the local box office. This broke the previous record set by Jeans, starring Prasanth and Aishwarya Rai, which collected RM300,000 in 1997.

Sivaji opened in 40 theatres across the country and 53 theatres on Saturday onwards. It created a stir on its opening day when the prints for the movie arrived late to cinemas, causing the cinema operators to reschedule and even cancel their shows, leading to the onslaught of dissatisfied patrons.

Fans even turned violent at several locations in Klang, Rawang, Penang and Petaling Jaya, vandalising cinemas and breaking out into fistfights over their disappointment. In Ipoh on Saturday, a cinema manager was attacked by irate fans, causing him head injuries which later required stitches.

However, over the weekend at TGV Tebrau City Johor Bahru, it was a more peaceful but still power-packed opening as Sivaji was seen going head-to-head against Hollywood blockbuster Fantastic Four: Rise Of The Silver Surfer in terms of attracting crowds and filling up halls for the weekend shows. Tickets for Sivaji were later reported to have sold out throughout the day.

"I came all the way from Senai so I made sure I avoided the first day show in case of disappointment with sold out tickets," said a cinema-goer who declined to be named.