Kamal Haasan and a co-star in a still from Dasavathaaram

Three Bachchans last week, 10 Kamal Haasans this Friday the 13th — the plexes are making a strong comeback after lying low when the Indian Premier League was garnering all the eyeballs.

Kamal Haasan’s Dasavathaaram, in which cutting-edge SFX meets fantasia, will be the first Tamil film to have a simultaneous release in Bengal. Advance bookings for the Rs 60-crore magnum opus opened on Wednesday and the signs were encouraging.

Distributors and exhibitors are confident Dasavathaaram will follow in the footsteps of the Rajanikanth starrer Sivaji, which was a phenomenal success in city cinemas last year.

“There have been a lot of enquiries for Dasavathaaram over the past few weeks. The hype around Sivaji and its success in Calcutta showed us that there is a steadily growing market for films in regional languages,” said Vikas Syal, regional manager of INOX, Forum.

All the INOX properties, 89 Cinemas and Hiland Park Fame will have a show each, while South City Fame will screen the film twice a day. That may not be a patch on the 128 shows Chennai theatres have lined up, but there is no mistaking the buzz about the three-time national award-winner’s first release in two years.

For the South Indian community in Calcutta, catching a show of Dasavathaaram could be priority No.1 for the weekend.

“The multiplexes have already approached us for bulk bookings. Both Kamal Haasan and Rajanikanth are phenomenally popular stars and the South Indian community here is looking forward to Dasavathaaram, just as the rest of the country is,” said R.S. Kalaimani, the manager of South India Club.

Although language could be a barrier in the absence of English subtitles, the advance booking queues suggest Kamal Haasan fans in the city aren’t bothered. One of the 10 avatars of the actor in Dasavathaaram is George Bush, and the American President is scheduled to watch the film at a special screening this weekend.

He surely won’t understand a word either. But then, he has a problem with English, too.