‘My Name is Khan' to be splashed across 2,000 screens globally

With the Shiv Sena backing-off from its original threat to disrupt the screening of My Name is Khan, the stage is now set for a virtual blitzkrieg of the Shah Rukh Khan- Kajol starrer.

Fox Searchlight, the distributors of the film, has drawn plans to have nearly 2,000 prints across screens worldwide in the first phase.

In the second, expected to begin in April, this will be enhanced to 2,500 , said sources at Fox Star Studios.

Aamir Khan starrer 3 Idiots, Bollywood's biggest grosser till date, was released with 1,900 prints worldwide.

Analysts believe that the MNIK may just surpass the 3 Idiots figure on such a wide scale of the release.

The phase-wise approach to releasing this movie is on the lines of the Oscar-winner, Slumdog Millionaire, where Fox had started with less than 100 prints, going up gradually to over 2000, which included film festivals.

It is also for the first time that a Bollywood offering will be released in two phases in 66 countries, a list that includes Egypt, the Middle East, Germany, Poland, Australia, the UK and the US.

MNIK will be released in Hindi, English and Arabic and also with subtitles in German and Polish.

The premiere is scheduled in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday and to be shown live on social networking portal, Facebook. The overseas market is critical to the film as it could account for 70 per cent of its collections.

The fact that Shah Rukh is the lead star is an added bonus given his huge popularity overseas.

If things go according to plan, MNIK will be the best piece of news to multiplexes following the super response to 3 Idiots and to the more recently released Ishqiya.