Hundreds of thousands of Rajinikanth fans thronged cinemas across Tamil-language India and Malaysia to catch the pre-dawn showing of gangster movie Kabali.
The film, also starring Taiwanese actor Winston Chao, was shot in Malaysia and southern India.
Crowds waited outside cinemas all night before the first showing, and in Chennai, the capital of Tamil Nadu state, Rajinikanth enthusiasts burst firecrackers and distributed sweets outside cinemas.
Shubhra Gupta, one of India’s leading film critics The Indian Express, said the Rajinikanth phenomenon was not easy to explain.