A ride aboard the Chennai Express just got a lot more expensive. Tickets to the Shah Rukh Khan, Deepika Padukone starrer will now cost upto 40 per cent more, thanks to a decision taken by the multiplexes yesterday morning.The raise, which will see an unprecedented 40 per cent increase in ticket prices during the weekday shows and up to a 20 per cent hike over the weekend, will not be uniform across all multiplexes. Increasing ticket prices around festivals is not unusual but the Rohit Shetty film takes the cake with its unprecedented pricetag and a ticket in Juhu PVR will cost the patrons close to Rs 500.While Fun Cinema will raise the weekday tickets prices by 40 per cent, PVR and Cinemax tickets will cost 25 per cent more throughout the week.When contacted, Anand Vishal, Head of Operations, Fun Cinemas told Mirror, “The jump in weekday ticket prices is largely due to the fact that currently they are sold at a lower price. Eid has been traditionally good for business and during the Eid week, we expect to sell more tickets than we do in a full month otherwise. A Shah Rukh Khan film is coming after nine months and history shows that Rohit Shetty’s films have not gone wrong at the box office.”Another major chain Inox had decided on a hike but had not fixed the price at the time of going to press. The hike has drawn extreme reactions from the public. Aditya Sampat, 27, an interior designer from Mumbai, feels that the move is “uncalled for” and the development has put him off the film. But the rates have not deterred others, like Taranpreet Kaur, an audit firm consultant in her mid 20’s from Delhi. “I will not miss the movie for anything,” said Kaur and her enthusiasm was backed by Piyush Kumar, a young engineer from Chennai who believes that the audiences will not shy away because of the new rates.But all is not bad news for SRK fans waiting for the film as most single screens, including popular theatres like Gaiety, Galaxy and Chandan, have decided to buck the pricey trend.