Imagine the three Khans — Aamir, Shah Rukh and Salman — releasing their films on the same day. Well, that chaos might not happen in India, but all the three Khans will see their movies, 3 Idiots (2009), Jab Tak Hai Jaan (2012) and Don 2 (2011), and Ek Tha Tiger (2012; ETT), releasing in Japan simultaneously on April 20. Yash Raj Films (YRF) and Reliance Entertainment have come together to release these four Hindi films in the land of the rising sun and have even held a premiere of ETT, which is called Thaiga Densetsu No Supai in Japanese.

Director Kabir Khan, who was in Tokyo for the premiere of ETT, is excited to see the response. The film will release with 30 prints in the country, where Indian films released with 3-4 prints earlier. “This will be a release as big as a Japanese film. The distributor, Nikkatsu, has promoted the film all over Japan. This release will be the true test to see if Hindi films are accepted here,” says Kabir. The filmmaker was also happy with the response that the film received from the Japanese press. “They asked about certain things in the film and about Bollywood films being shot abroad and released worldwide,” he says.

Salman Khan, however, won’t be seen mouthing dialogs in Japanese as the film is in Hindi with Japanese subtitles. The premiere was attended by Japanese actor Yumi Sugimoto, who expressed her desire to work in a Hindi film. “I must say that she will be competition to Katrina Kaif, as she’s lived in Japan. I’d cast the two actors; the more the merrier,” says Kabir. YRF is in talks with Nikkatsu to release Dhoom:3 in Japan as well. The Japan National Tourism Organization is also backing this endeavour. YRF is also scouting for locations to shoot a film in the country. Ashish Singh from YRF says, “We have seen some beautiful locations in and around Tokyo and will soon plan an outdoor shoot here.” The writer is in Japan as a guest of Yash Raj Films.