Fans queue up to buy tickets for Jai Ho at Mona cinema in Patna on Thursday. Picture by Ashok Sinha

It’s that time of the year when a Salman Khan film has been slotted at a theatre near you.

A quick recce of the gusto running in the city on Thursday found that people are waiting for the sun to rise and the theatre gates to open on Friday for Jai Ho. The enthusiasm is understandable because Jai Ho releases more than a year after his last release Dabangg 2 on December 21, 2012.

The New Year’s most-awaited film is already a rage in Patna. Poor or rich, youths or elderly, everyone was heard talking about Jai Ho outside the theatres that opened for advance ticket sale.

The film has been slotted for 33 shows — Patna Cinepolis (19), Regent (5), Mona (5) and Elphinstone (4), compared to Salman’s second-last release Ek Tha Tiger that had just 20 shows in the city.

Till Thursday evening, the advance bookings picked up pace in single theatres as well as in the multiplex Cinepolis. Many of Salman’s fans did not mind standing in the queue for over an hour to get the first-day-first-show tickets.

Directed and produced by Salman’s younger brother Sohail Khan, the film has already created a craze through its songs and promotions.

“Salman’s fans are not confined to any particular section. They come from anywhere and everywhere. Whenever his films hit the theatres, we know that they would be entertaining. He is charismatic and people love to watch him on silver screen,” said Suman Kumar Sinha, the chairman and managing director of Regent Theatre Pvt Ltd. True to the core, the film’s tagline reads “people’s man”.

The observable fact was that Regent Fun Cinemas opened its advance booking counters in the afternoon, and by evening, the first day shows were sold out. Similar scenes were witnessed at Cinepolis where youngsters grabbed any seat that came their way. Many expressed their anticipation that Salman may break his previous records and emerge as the biggest money churner in Bollywood.

“Watching Salman on screen is always a fun. I have watched the film’s trailer and it promises to be a money-spinner. We will also get a chance to see a new face (Daisy Shah). The excitement is at its peak. Let’s see how the film turns out to be,” said Patna Women’s College student Dipti Chandra. She was found fighting for a ticket at Regent.

Jai Ho is the story of Major Jai Agnihotri, who creates a nationwide movement by convincing people to do a good deed for three persons who must in turn each do good deeds for three other persons.