Rs 75 cr at stake on Salman movies

MUMBAI: Actor Salman Khan's arrest has created a flutter in Bollywood as around Rs 75 crore is at stake due to stalling of movies having the actor in a lead role.

The industry experts are however hoping that the delay caused by the arrest will not be too long and they were willing to wait and watch the future proceedings.

"Arrest of Salman Khan is a jolt for the Hindi film industry as Rs 75 crore rides on him. But as of now the situation is not that serious as it seems," trade analyst and critic Komal Nahata told.

Corraborating with Nahata's views, Kumar Mohan, editor of trade magazine 'Complete Cinema' said "Salman being a celebrity, his films would get affected. But only if he remained in jail for long."

"Salman has two films on the floor as of now; one is Afzal Khan's God Tussi Great Ho (Rs 35 cr) which has been in the making for the last two-and-a-half years," he said.

"There is also the remake of Tamil hit Pokhri (Rs 35-40 cr), produced by Boney Kapoor. Shooting has just begun for this film that also stars Ayesha Takia. Shooting has not yet started," Mohan said.

The third film that Salman has already been signed for and paid Rs 15 crore is Mukta Arts' Yuvraj; the director is Subhash Ghai. Salman was in talks with Rajkumar Santoshi for his London Dreams as well.

"We aren't worried too much now as we expect the verdict to cause just a brief delay in production as the actor can still go for appeal in a higher court. He has signed a few of them, but they are yet to go on floors. In this situation, there are little chances of serious losses to producers," he said.

He also confirmed that the producers will not be in a hurry to take back the signing amount from Salman.

"He is a celebrity, in big league. Nobody would want to demand money back from him. Also we are positive of the future. However, nobody is above the law," Mohan said.

The actor's home banner, Sohail Khan Production, has just signed a contract of Rs 91 crore with Indian Film Company for two films. They include the sequel to Partner - it is titled Tom and Jerry and also stars Govinda.

There is another film called Mr and Mrs Khanna that also stars brother Sohail Khan and Lara Dutta; this film is being directed by Prem Soni.