The advance booking of Shah Rukh Khan’s Jawan has begun, and it has done so on a bumper note. The Atlee film is set to be released in theatres on September 7 and the buzz is definitely high, given Shah Rukh’s star power and Atlee’s credentials down south. And the first hour of advance booking is proof that the buzz is stupendous.

Jawan’s advance booking crossed the total advance of Akshay Kumar’s Selfiee in just five minutes flat, as per a report from box office tracker Cine Hub. Selfiee, which released in February, had a low advance booking figure of just Rs 40 lakh but to cross that amount in five minutes shows that Jawan’s craze is unprecedented. Cine Hub estimated that Jawan should be able to sell 1 lakh tickets by the end of day one of advance booking.

Trade tracker Sacnilk reported that several single screens in Bihar are already sold out for the first day a full six days before release. The portal says that Jawan’s pace shows that it may just set the all-time record for Hindi films in terms of advance booking. Interestingly, the record was set just seven months ago by another Shah Rukh Khan film – Pathaan. The Siddhanrth Anand film had sold tickets worth Rs 32 crore in advance booking and then registered the largest opening for a Bollywood film ever.
Jawan marks Atlee’s Bollywood debut. The film’s female lead Nayanthara is also making her foray into the Hindi film industry with the film. Two other major players – the antagonist Vijay Sethupathi and the composer Anirudh Ravichander – are also big names from Tamil cinema. All this means that Jawan is expected to do well down south unlike most other big Bollywood releases. That coupled with a grand opening in the Hindi belt should be able to catapult it past Pathaan.