Rajini mania hit south India with its epicentre in Tamil Nadu in the little hours of Thursday. People began queuing up for Rajinikanth’s 2.0 from last evening itself in front of some 6500 theatres in the state, to watch first day first show, scheduled for 4 a.m.

India most expensive film in the making at close to Rs 600 crore, 2.0 stars Rajinikanth whose appeal is global and of course pan India. But for good measure, to rope in the Bollywood audience, the film has Akshay Kumar in a negative role, in a hitherto not seen kind of portrayal. Directed by Shankar, the film is expected to push the boundaries of Indian film making in the use of technology to tell the oft told story of love, romance, vengeance and violence.

The special effects are so real that they give the film a leg up over all other movies made in India so far. It is for sure a new bench mark, after Bahubali established the south Indian film industry as among the tops in India when it came to making technically superior and matching Hollywood in production quality and camera work.

Now 2.0 is pushing this boundary further.

For the Rajini fans, there can be no better offering.

In Chennai, leave alone the Rajini fans even the media had begun preparations from midnight with their journalists’ crews and OB vans to station themselves plonk on the spot to cover the ‘Rajini celebrations’ as they happen.

In fact, a few television channels have the night team a day off with a fresh team starting to carry on covering the Rajini mania gripping the South India as also other parts of India.

In Mumbai too, people woke up at 1 a.m. for the early morning show. SC may have banned bursting crackers and regulating them during Diwali, but for Rajini fans it was no less than Diwali. In fact, it was much bigger than Diwali as they burst firecrackers and danced with gay abandon in front of theatres screening the film.

For sure, Rajinikanth is a phenomenon for future researchers to take up as case study in human (or fan) behaviour said Ramanna K, a science graduate and a die-hard fan of the Thalaivar.

The film opening has been very good and it is expected to make money for the producers, trade analysts say. But they do also have a word of caution: despite all hype Enthiran was not that much of a success as one would have expected from a Rajini film.

So one would have to wait for a few days to get a proper fix on the business the film is doing and what it is doing to the producers.