SHAH RUKH KHAN, DEEPIKA PADUKONE, ROHIT SHETTY AND UTV LAUNCH THE FIRST LOOK OF ‘CHENNAI EXPRESS’

The first look of UTV Motion Pictures’ and Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt Ltd.’s Chennai Express was launched today by Shah Rukh Khan – Actor and Producer, Red Chillies Entertainments Pvt Ltd, Ronnie Screwvala – Managing Director, Disney UTV and Siddharth Roy Kapur – Managing Director – Studios, Disney UTV at a star studded event. Leading lady of the film Deepika Padukone and director Rohit Shetty attended the gala event with all the fanfare befitting the highly anticipated release. This is UTV and Red Chillies’ first co-production collaboration. Before this, SRK and UTV have worked together on the iconic and critically acclaimed movie Swades, released in 2004.

Commenting on his first ever production collaboration with UTV and his role, Shah Rukh Khan said, “It has been a great working experience with UTV. Especially as an actor, I have completely enjoyed myself while shooting for this film. I have had a lot of fun during the shoot of this film. Chennai Express is a love story… but completely Rohit Shetty Shtyle. Rohit is a brilliant director and I am very glad that we came together for this film. Deepika will surprise everyone with this film and I hope that our audiences love what we have done for them. This film is for everyone who loves being entertainer by cinema!”

“At UTV our vision is to work with the best creative minds in the business and this collaboration with Red Chillies for Chennai Express is in keeping with that vision. We are very excited about kicking off the promotions for the film and are looking forward to the reactions to our music and trailers. Under Rohit’s superb direction and with SRK and Deepika’s standout performances, I am certain that Chennai Express will be the most entertaining experience audiences have had in a movie theatre in a long time!,” said Siddharth Roy Kapur, Managing Director – Studios, Disney UTV.

“Chennai Express is one of the best stories I have worked on so far. This is a story that I have had an association with since 2008. It has been a journey in itself and I am glad we are showing the trailer today for everyone to see what we have made. It was a great pleasure to work with Shah Rukh Khan. He is an utter delight to work with and is the finest actor our country has today. Deepika is the surprise element of the film and she is easily going to woo the audience. I have always catered to family audiences and Chennai Express is a family entertainer,” said director Rohit Shetty.

“We’ve had a blast working with Rohit on Chennai Express. He’s extremely clear in his approach of film making. Also, Shah Rukh would always say our next film together has to be as special as On Shanti Om. I’m glad Chennai Express happened and excited that everyone will get to see the trailer today,” said actress Deepika Padukone.

Chennai Express will hit theatres worldwide on Eid – 8th August 2013.

SYNOPSIS:

The story of a Mumbai boy (Shah Rukh Khan) who embarks on a journey to a small town in Tamil Nadu, only to fulfil the last wish of his grandfather to have his ashes immersed in Rameshwaram. En route, he meets a South Indian girl (Deepika Padukone) hailing from an orthodox family. As they find love through this journey in the exuberant lands of South India, the clash of cultures awaits them. What follows is a series of adventures where he finds himself in new surroundings, challenged with an unfamiliar language! Chennai Express is an action packed romantic movie.

Come fall in love… Rohit Shetty style!

Red Chillies Entertainments:

Red Chillies Entertainments headed by Shah Rukh Khan and Gauri Khan is a company that is surging ahead in the global entertainment industry.

Its latest venture Chennai Express is a film starring Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan. It is a first collaboration between Red Chillies Entertainments and director Rohit Shetty. The film revolves around a romance that blossoms in a man’s life aboard the Chennai Express, during the course of his journey from Chennai to Rameswaram. It also includes a fair share of action and entertainment which is sure to leave fans on the edge of their seats!

It’s last release and box office record breaking movie Ra.One (2011) still stands as Bollywood’s very first futuristic movie with stunning visual effects and state of the art production technique and included an impressive star cast comprising of Shah Rukh Khan, Arjun Rampal and Kareena Kapoor.

Red Chillies Entertainments’ earlier endeavors include, My Name is Khan (2010) which was a co-production of Red Chillies and Dharma Production starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol. The movie was a blockbuster hit of 2010. Billu (2009), starring Irrfan Khan and Lara Dutta created a buzz, Om Shanti Om (2007) which also set the box-office on fire and Paheli (2005) which was India’s official entry to the Oscars in that year.

Founded in 2002 as a film production house, Red Chillies Entertainments has branched itself into other spheres of production, starting from setting up a path breaking Special Effects studio, VFX, which brought Hollywood’s slick sophistication to Indian cinema.

Don – The Chase Begins Again, won European accolades for Best Special Effects in 2006. And a year later, the Star Screen Awards singled out Om Shanti Om, for best visual effects (2007). The film also made a clean sweep, winning all the special effects awards for the year 2007. In 2008, VFX followed up on its winning streak by clutching all the biggies to expand its awards arsenal with the Filmfare, Zee Lux, IIFA (Bangkok), Screen, Indy’s & Apsara Producer’s Guild Awards.

The company’s TVC division has churned out ad commercials for some major global brands like Pepsi, Nokia, Hyundai, ITC & Emami to name a few. Red Chillies Entertainments has also spread its wings to the television industry with the successful shows like ‘Ishaan’, ‘Tere Mere Beach Mein’, ‘Ghar Ki Baat Hai’, ‘First Ladies with Abu Sandeep’ and telefilms like ‘Like I love You’ and ‘Love Ho Jaane De’

With global entertainment conglomerates evincing keen interest, Red Chillies Entertainments is all set to blitzkrieg the world of entertainment!

Disney UTV Studios:

Bringing together the best of both worlds, The Walt Disney Studios and UTV Motion Pictures have formed one of the leading film studios in India. The Studio’s activities span across creative development, production, marketing, distribution, licensing, merchandising and syndication of films in India and worldwide.

UTV Motion Pictures as a dominant player in the Indian film industry has been in the forefront of bringing Indian films to a global audience and the last decade in Indian cinema has seen UTV delivering some of the most iconic films including Swades, Rang De Basanti, Jodhaa Akbar, A Wednesday, Dev D, Khosla Ka Ghosla, The Namesake, Life in a Metro, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, Fashion, Kaminey, No One Killed Jessica, Raajneeti, Udaan, Peepli Live, Delhi Belly, Ek Main Aur Ekk Tu, Paan Singh Tomar, Rowdy Rathore, Barfi!, Heroine, Race 2 and more recently AnyBody Can Dance (ABCD), Kai Po Che! and Yeh Jawaani Hai Deewani.

Over the years, the studio has worked with the most eminent production and direction talent in the industry including Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Priyanka Chopra, Katrina Kaif, Vidya Balan, Kareena Kapoor, Karan Johar, Mira Nair, M. Night Shyamalan, Ashutosh Gowariker, Prakash Jha, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, Anurag Basu, Rohit Shetty, Abhishek Kapoor, and Shyam Benegal, while backing new talent like Sushant Singh Rajput, Amit Sadh, Ileana D’ Cruz, Neeraj Pandey, Raj Kumar Gupta, Nishikant

Kamat, Dibakar Banerjee, Vikramaditya Motwane, Amit Trivedi, Akshat Verma, Remo D’Souza and many others.

The studio has to its credit 4 films in the last 7 years to have been selected to represent India at the Academy awards; Rang De Basanti (2006), Harishchandrachi Factory (2009), Peepli Live (2010) and Barfi! (2012). In 2011, the studio successfully ventured into South Indian cinema with Deiva Thirumagal and Muran. Since then the studio had successful films in Vettai, Masala Café, Mugamoodi, Thaandavam and Settai in Tamil, and Grandmaster and Husbands in Goa in Malayalam. Today, Disney UTV has a library of over 80 films including Hindi, Regional, Animation and International Productions, which have been showcased in over 50 festivals across 35 countries, receiving almost 320 awards in the last 9 years.

The Walt Disney Studios has seen unprecedented box office success in India recently with MARVEL’s The Avengers which was distributed and marketed in India by UTV Motion Pictures. The film also emerged as the 4th highest grosser of all-time amongst Hollywood films in India. Prior to this, Cars 2 and Pirates of the Caribbean 4 released in 2011 and were the biggest animation and live action titles of all time for Disney in the country. In 2010, Prince of Persia became the highest grossing western film in India that year. Earlier, Disney released its first live action Hindi feature Do Dooni Chaar in 2010 and subsequently after the success of the film, released Anaganaga-O-Dheerudu, a Telugu feature targeted at the southern audiences and second Hindi live-action film Zokkomon.

Coming up from the combined Studio is an inimitable slate with films like Ghanchakkar, Satyagraha and Chennai Express in Hindi,Sigaram Thodu and Theeya Velai Seiyyanum Kumaru in Tamil, The Lone Ranger, Monsters University in English and many more.