Chennai Express is a 2013 Indian Hindi-language action comedy film directed by Rohit Shetty and produced by UTV Motion Pictures and Red Chillies Entertainment. It stars Deepika Padukone and Shah Rukh Khan with Nikitin Dheer, Sathyaraj, Kamini Kaushal and Lekh Tandon in supporting roles. The film revolves around Rahul Mithaiwala, a rich man who accidentally boards the eponymous train and journeys from Mumbai to Rameswaram with the daughter of an influential don. The first planned collaboration between Khan and Shetty was a remake of Angoor (1982). The script of Chennai Express, which was initially written as a backup project for Khan, was chosen instead. Conceived as a "commercial romance", the film was originally titled Ready Steady Po. Filming began in Mehboob Studio in October 2012 and was completed by May 2013. A large part of the film was set in Ooty, for which sets were constructed in Wai and also in Ramoji Film City. The soundtrack for Chennai Express was composed by Vishal–Shekhar, with the background score being composed by Amar Mohile. UTV Motion Pictures came on board as producer and distributor, marking its first active project with Khan after Swades (2004). Chennai Express was released theatrically in overseas markets on 8 August 2013 and a day later in India. The film received mixed reviews from critics and it broke several box office records in India and abroad, becoming the quickest film to collect ₹1 billion (US$17.07 million) net domestically. The film surpassed 3 Idiots (2009) to become the highest-grossing Bollywood film worldwide at that point. At the 59th Filmfare Awards, Chennai Express received 7 nominations, including Best Film, Best Director (Shetty), Best Actor (Khan) and Best Actress (Padukone).
Deepika Padukone as Meenalochni "Meenamma" Azhagusundaram
Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul Mithaiwala
Nikitin Dheer as Tangaballi
Sathyaraj as Durgeshwara "Durgesh" Azhagusundaram
Kamini Kaushal as Neetu Mithaiwala
Lekh Tandon as Y. Y. Mithaiwala
Mukesh Tiwari as Inspector Shamsher Singh
Puvisha Manoharan as Radhika "Radha" Azhagusundaram (Meenamma's cousin)
Manu Malik as Baman (Rahul's friend)
Rakesh Kukreti as Bobby (Rahul's friend)
Mohan Raman as the village priest
Yogi Babu as the Sri Lankan smuggler
Jasper as Durgeshwara's Henchman
Besant Ravi as Durgeshwara's Henchman
King Kong as a passerby
Jimmy Moses as a truck driver
Delhi Ganesh as a villager
Priyamani (item number "1 2 3 4 Get on the Dance Floor")
