Hosur, Dec. 27: The Dangal for tickets started at the gate before Yuddham pinned the audience down.

It was 6.10pm on Christmas Day in this small town in Tamil Nadu's Krishnagiri district, adjoining Bangalore. Sree Manjunatha Talkies, on the Bangalore-Chennai highway that passes through the town surrounded by villages, was packed with people demanding tickets to at least stand in the aisles.

A surprise, really: dubbed Bollywood films don't usually do well in small towns in Tamil Nadu.

But Yuddham - or the Tamil version of the Aamir Khan-starrer Dangal (wrestling bout)- had just performed a takedown on conventional responses.

This reporter had reached the hall for the 6.30pm show of Yuddham, only to be told by the bailvaan - Tamil for pehelwan or bouncer - at the gate that no tickets were available. Even the tickets for those who were willing to watch the movie standing had been sold out.

"We have two shows and both are doing well; so well that I am forced to allow people to stand and watch. In places like Hosur, men take several cigarette breaks and step out during a film. With this film, no one takes cigarette breaks," said Naveen Rajanna, who owns the hall.

He offered this reporter a foldable chair near the entrance.

The movie - a biographical film about wrestler Mahavir Singh Phogat (played by Aamir) who taught his daughters Geeta Phogat and Babita Kumari - started 15 minutes early as the hall was full and the crowd excited. But the loudest whistles were reserved for the girls when they got back to wrestling after rebelling against their father by going for a friend's mehendi ceremony.

" Mannuku nee gowravam kaatinaal, mannum unnaku goravam kaattum (if you honour the soil, the soil will honour you)," Mahavir tells his young daughters at a wrestling pit in his farm.

The language of the film is simple, grammatically correct and powerful. The Tamil title Yuddham had also made the film eligible for an entertainment tax waiver, though even the Tamil posters say Dangal,with Yuddham in brackets below in a smaller font.

It probably helped too that several south Indian film personalities like Khushboo, R. Madhavan and Gautham Menon came up with positive tweets about the movie.

Inside the hall, the audience had been clearly floored - a pin, as wrestlers would say.

"Even though it (the film) is set in Haryana, it is easy to understand. It is like my own village in Vellore. We also used to wrestle in the mud," Saravanan Rajendran, who practices law in Bangalore, told this paper during the interval.

"I felt sad for the girls when Mahavir forcefully got their hair cut but I still hope my daughter will take to some sport after seeing this. But I won't force her like Mahavir," Rajendran said.

He won't need to. "I also want to do kushti (wrestling)," Kanisha, his 11-year-old daughter, cut in. "In school we have other games."

"We also participate in sports, but not wrestling," said Chitra, a young woman who had come to the hall with her family.

Till Sunday, the theatre had been screening Yuddham only from the evening. "From Tuesday I will play Dangal for all four shows. I decided to run a dubbed film because (Salman Khan-starrer) Sultan in Tamil ran for 11 days. Shah Rukh Khan had started this trend with (the dubbed version of) Chennai Express in 2013," hall owner Naveen said.

For a dubbed film, even a week is considered good in small towns in Tamil Nadu.

Most of Hosur turns off its lights after 9pm and the late-night show is usually reserved for adult films. But Naveen has a full house for Dangal for the 9.30pm show too. "I think it will run for a fortnight," he laughed.

Dangal has reportedly made more than Rs 100 crore over the weekend across India, doing better in Chennai than Katthi Sandai which also released this weekend.

Katthi Sandai sees the return of comedian Vadivelu and stars Vishal and Tamannah Bhatia - all big stars in Kollywood, the industry nickname for Tamil cinema.

Many who have seen Dangal in other parts of India say the audience stands up when the national anthem plays after Geeta wins gold at the Commonwealth Games, a fictional replication of Geeta's real-life triumph.

In Hosur, the crowd began to leave as the anthem was played. The movie ends shortly after Geeta's win.