Chennai Express directed by Rohit Shetty and released in 2013, is a high-energy Bollywood masala film starring Shah Rukh Khan as Rahul Mithaiwala, a reluctant hero who boards the titular Express to fulfill his late grandfather’s wish of immersing his ashes in Rameswaram, a journey he’d planned to avoid by pretending to go to Goa. En route, he leaps into the life of Meena Lochani (Deepika Padukone), the daughter of a powerful South Indian crime lord, after helping her board the train; chaos ensues when her family pursues them across Tamil Nadu, trying to force her into a marriage of convenience. The film unfolds as a riotous road-trip romance filled with cartoonish action, comedic nods to Bollywood classics (notably Dilwale Dulhania Le Jayenge), colorful song‑and‑dance numbers including the viral “Lungi Dance,” and a magnetic chemistry between its leads. Despite mixed critical opinions about its stereotypical portrayal of South India, Chennai Express was a commercial triumph, earning over ₹390 crore globally.