It’s that time of the year when theatres in Tamil Nadu turn into festival grounds. It’s that time of the year when four generations of Tamil cinema fans wear their sunglasses a certain way and flip their hair a specific way. And when the state hopes to see superstar Rajinikanth recreate his magic on the big screen.
The buzz surrounding his upcoming film, Jailer 2, ahead of its October 15 release shows that more than 50 years after his debut, Rajinikanth continues to be an industry himself, comfortably at the top as the highest-grossing Tamil superstar. To the industry, a Rajini film’s release is the most pivotal day of the year. As producer Kalaipuli S Thanu states, the superstar’s films not only support theatre owners, distributors, and producers, but also members of the Film Employees Federation of South India. “So, the film will impact everyone, from top producers to blue-collar employees. Moreover, his box-office records in Kerala, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh and overseas remain undefeated,” says Thanu.
This is also why producer G Dhananjheyan says the benchmark the business has set for Jailer 2 is a whopping Rs. 1000 crore. “Tamil cinema cannot be happy with films doing Rs. 50, 100 or 300 crores. We need Rs. 600, 700 and 1000 crores. And we need a film like Jailer 2 to do that,” says Dhananjheyan, adding that the release window of the film will work in its favour. “It is coming in a holiday season, and there aren’t any major competitions in Telugu or Hindi. The expectations are naturally high, and the rate at which they have sold the Telugu rights is proof of that.”
Jailer 2, in particular, has all the ingredients of a quintessential Rajini blockbuster — to understand why, we need to look at what made the 2023 Jailer film so successful. Directed by Nelson, Jailer told the story of a retired cop, Tiger Muthuvel Pandian, who is forced to make some calls when his son gets mysteriously kidnapped. Firstly, the film was a major comeback for both director Nelson and superstar Rajinikanth — while Nelson was coming off the failure of Vijay’s Beast, Rajini’s Annaatthe received mixed reviews from critics and audiences.
Jailer, which also featured cameos from Shivarajkumar, Mohanlal, and Jackie Shroff, banked big on the post-pandemic pan-Indian cinema formula to reportedly become the second highest-grossing Tamil movie worldwide. “The footfalls Jailer generated remain unbeatable in most theatres in the state,” says Vishnu Kamal, owner of Kamal Theatre, Chennai. “The combination of Rajini sir, Nelson and Anirudh worked out well,” says Vishnu, while Dhananjheyan credits the film’s success to its low-key promotions. “Jailer came like an underdog. It wasn’t promoted heavily, and nobody expected it to do such numbers.” Sun Pictures is following the same strategy now for Jailer 2, but don’t mistake it for the production house playing safe. According to Thanu, the film is already silently breaking records. “Jailer 2 has been sold at a much higher rate than his films usually are. It has already done more business than Jailer 1. That is enough proof for what is to come,” says Thanu.
Rajinikanth in a still from ‘Jailer 2’ | Photo Credit: Special Arrangement
Like its predecessor, Jailer 2 too features a star-studded ensemble; apart from starring Shivarajkumar, Mohanlal, Mithun Chakraborty, and Jackie Shroff, it also features Suraj Venjaramoodu, SJ Suryah, Vidya Balan, and Ramya Krishnan. It is rumoured that Hrithik Roshan and Vijay Sethupathi will make special appearances.
Interestingly, this also marks one of the few sequels that the superstar has made in his long career. This is another cause for excitement, says Vishnu. “As he stated at the pre-release event of Jailer 2, he wouldn’t do sequels usually — he avoided doing sequels to films like Baashha and Petta — but if he is doing Jailer 2, I believe the content must be quite good.” As a theatre owner, Vishnu is confident that the film will attract families to theatres. “Among the top stars, Rajini sir and Vijay sir (former actor and Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu) have had huge family audiences. And because Rajini sir’s previous film Coolie was an A-Certificate film, children could not come to theatres, and so it didn’t become a family outing.” But Jailer 2 will rectify that, says Vishnu. “At Kamala Theatre, for instance, we opened bookings last night, and within 20 hours we have sold over 10,000 tickets already. So we are looking forward to the movie, and there’s tremendous pressure for tickets to the First Day First Show”
In more than half a century of Tamil cinema history, if one star has consistently taken the business of Tamil cinema to new heights, it has to be Rajinikanth, and in a year like 2026 — when only a handful of big-ticket films have been released — Rajini becomes a mantra. Now, all eyes are on October 15 to see whether the Superstar of Tamil cinema recreates his magic once again. As the lyric goes, ‘Innaikum endrendraikkum oru thalaivan dhaan.’ (Now and forever, he is the leader)
