25 Jul – Filmmaker Karan Johar's controversial but lucrative box office record-breaker "My Name Is Khan" charts another first by releasing in selected UK cinemas as the first ever Bollywood film with audio description (AD) for the vision impaired, according to a press release by Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) in England.

The winsome Khan-Kajol pairing for "My Name Is Khan"

According to the charity, they worked with 20th Century Fox to achieve this milestone after its research among blind or partially sighted people of Asian origin found that over 55% of respondents were more likely to watch Bollywood films if AD was provided. AD is as important to blind and partially sighted people as subtitles are to those with hearing problems. It is an additional narration that fits between passages of dialogue to describe action sequences, body language, costume and scenery, allowing the viewer to understand exactly what is happening on screen. "My Name is Khan" is also the first film to feature AD in Hindi, the language of the film.

Shah Rukh Khan at a press conference flanked by director Karan Johar and co-star Kajol.

Martin Bromfield, Executive Director at Twentieth Century Fox was quoted as saying: "20th Century Fox is proud to offer, for the first time ever, a Hindi AD track on this movie. English-speaking AD has been available on all our films for some time now, so we felt it was natural to progress and offer Hindi AD on our first collaboration with Bollywood. With help from RNIB and Deluxe Digital Studios we worked hard to create an English audio descriptive track which was then translated before being recorded by a Hindi speaking audio describer, in time for the second week of release."

Seen at "My Name Is Khan" TGV Capsquare premiere: Malaysian Ministry of Information, Communication & Culture Secretary General YB Datuk Wira Kamaruddin Bin Siaraf & Indian High Commissioner Vijay Gokhale.

Upon release, the film broke many box office records for an Indian film all over the world. It grossed the highest opening weekend and opening day overseas for a Bollywood film. It also grossed the second-highest worldwide opening weekend, behind Rajkumar Hirani's "3 Idiots".

Closer to home, the movie fared well but a source close to the local distributor Suraya Production said that it was disadvantaged by the Chinese New Year season, which meant Chinese films took greater priority and that it did not secure release in prime locations like the country's largest cineplex GSC Mid Valley in Kuala Lumpur. The movie is playing at only 10 locations nationwide.

Box office collections at other locations nationwide have been reported as ranging from "fair" to "good", with sold out shows registered at TGV CapSquare primarily.

"My Name Is Khan" is distributed by Network2009 in Singapore and Suraya Production in Malaysia. It opened internationally on 12 February 2010.