Thursday, 8th August 01:30 PM IST

"Chennai Express" is finally hours away from hitting the cinemas and buzz around film is unprecedented. A massy film, Eid release and widest ever screen size worldwide - trade can not ask for more.

Though we predicted 4 cr nett on Thursday (today) in paid previews but it seems that film will do much more than that. 5 cr nett looks safe bet at the moment and it can always go up depending on buzz and word of mouth.

Film will open best in Mumbai, Bangalore, Mysore, West Bengal, UP and Gujarat. Delhi and East Punjab will be on lower side though CI, CP, Rajasthan and Hyderabad will be decent. Few high end cinemas i.e. Cinemax Versova, PVR cinemas in NCR and multiplexes in Bangalore are showing huge bookings and that means even classes are warming up to the film.

Already Orrisa has witnessed historical booking on 9th August and all shows are booked till Friday night despite film releasing in every cinema possible! In UP, Kanpur, Lucknow, Allahabad is almost full till SUnday and it seems something special in offering.

Overseas paid preview record for a Bollywood film will be broken with some margin and not many reports coming from there but according to sources in UTV, a big eye popping number is expected by tomorrow night itself.

We will be back with our next report in evening so stay tuned!

here is the link for our video review -