 Khan promoted his film on the reality television shows Comedy Nights with Kapil , Madhubala Ek Ishq Ek Junoon , DID Super Moms , Jhalak Dikhhla Jaa 6 and Indian Idol Junior . The Zeitgeist — Google 's year @-@ end compilation of the most frequent search queries — named Chennai Express the most trending topic of 2013 in India . The film 's satellite television rights were sold to Zee Network for ₹ 480 million ( US $ 7 @.@ 1 million ) . The agreement was linked to the film 's box office revenue — the first deal of its kind in Indian cinema . If Chennai Express collected over ₹ 1 @.@ 3 billion ( US $ 19 million ) net , then for every ₹ 100 million earned after that , the producers would get an additional ₹ 20 million . The film had its television premiere on 20 October 2013 , and was seen by a record number of viewers , almost doubling that of the highest rated fiction show . It helped its broadcaster , Zee TV , to reach the top position among General Entertainment Channels that month . 
