Upala KBR (DNA; May 16, 2016)
Aditya Chopra’s Sultan, starring Salman Khan and Anushka Sharma, might never have been made with the same title, were it not for producer Ramesh Taurani. The producer who has worked with the actor in the beginning of Khan’s career held the rights to the title. When he learned that Yash Raj Films wanted that title for Salman’s film, Taurani gave it to Adi without charging him any money for the same.
A source says, “Salman asked Taurani for the title. He agreed to give it to him right away. Later, Aditya Chopra, the producer of Sultan, called him and offered to compensate the producer financially. But Taurani considers the Khans family, there was no question of him accepting any money. He gave it away free of cost.”
The earlier connect
Salman and Taurani go way back since Paththar Ke Phool (1991). “Maine Pyar Kiya had released and was a super hit, but Salman wasn’t getting good offers. He was waiting for almost two months when GP Sippy announced that his next would star Salman. Sippy was looking for a script and director, when Taurani approached him for the music rights. Viveck Vaswani had a project for which he had signed Raveena Tandon (making her debut) with the director Anant Balani. Vaswani had asked Sippy if he wanted to produce the film (Paththar Ke Phool). Taurani gave Rs 11 lakh as signing amount for the music rights. Salman, Raveena, Balani, music directors Raam-Laxman and Salman’s father Salim Khan were given certain amounts as the signing amount. If Taurani had not given that as a signing amount, the film might have not been made.”