What! India Declares Public Holiday In Order To Allow Citizens See A New Movie

India’s top actor Rajinikanth has a new film hitting the cinema, and just to ensure that citizens won’t abscond from work to watch the film, businesses have decided to declare Friday a work-free day.

According to BBC, the new movie ‘Kabali’ will be released on 12,000 screens and there are possibilities that workers will decide to abscond from work or call in sick just to visit the cinema.

Rajinikanth is India’s highest paid actor, and BBC adds that the movie Kabali, a gangsta film, already has raked up about $30million from rights sales.

See the list of activities piled up in preparation for the movie premiere, as published by BBC:
Budget airline Air Asia has laid on a special Kabali flight from Bangalore to Chennai, featuring Rajinikanth’s favourite food. The special flight will be carrying 180 Rajinikanth fans to watch his film on the day of its release.

One man has said he will watch 10 screenings back-to-back on Friday and Saturday and described the 65-year-old star as his father, mother, and God.

A female fan has designed a sari with Rajinikanth’s face on it.
Luxury hotels in Bangalore are organising special shows with each ticket going for 1,300 rupees ($19; £14).
A fan club dedicated to the star plans to distribute helmets, welding glasses and gloves to workers as Kabali is a film about the “labour class”.

Rajinikanth has dominated the industry for over 40 years and the 65-year-old screen god has over 170 films under his belt, mostly movies in Tamil language.

Okay o, which Nollywood star can command such respect?