A falling out after the flop film ‘Veer.’
By Dileep Thekkethil
BENGALURU: It seems like Salman Khan’s agonies are escalating day by day. The actor, who is now out on bail after being convicted for a hit-and-run case, is once again facing legal issues as Vijay Galani, the producer of the flop movie “Veer”, filed a defamation case against the 49-year old Bollywood bachelor for Rs. 250 crores (approximately $40 million).
Galani, who produced Veer in 2010, has accused the actor of misconduct in professional behavior, mental stress and loss of reputation.
As per a statement given to DNA, Galani said, “I agreed to give Salman a signing amount of Rs 10 crores for Veer. In his entire career, Salman had not received this kind of a signing amount. In fact, his entire fee for Yuvraaj and Wanted and other films during that period was around Rs 7-8 crore each. Even Salim Saab said this signing amount was unprecedented. Besides this amount, we agreed that Salman would get Rs 15 crore if and when there is an ‘overflow’ (profits made by the film). Salman completed the film happily. And I sold the film to Eros Entertainment. Eros, Salman and I drew up a tri-party agreement that the first overflow amount of Rs 15 crore would go to Salman.”
Galani further said that the movie didn’t work out the way he intended it to leading to a box office failure. He couldn’t earn any profit out of the film, but Salman Khan’s office sent him a memo asking to show the original copy of the agreement he signed with Salman regarding the ‘overflow’ payment. Galani also said that this incident happened just a day after Salman and he spent time in the actor’s place, apparently joking and laughing. He had mentioned during their meet up to ignore the letter sent by his manager with this regard.
But, Galani said he received a letter from Salman’s manager saying that the ‘overflow’ agreement was unacceptable for the actor. This after everything was put on paper and completion of the 2-year long shooting which eventually didn’t pay off. Galani asks, “We were working together for two years and he never mentioned he had any problem with the ‘overflow’ agreement. What made him suddenly wake up about having a problem with the overflow?”
Things became better between both as Galani approached the producers association after gaining a favorable response from CINTAA. The producers association also ruled favoring Galani which provoked Salman to complain to the Federation of Western India Cine Association. Galani was asked to respond to which he replied he didn’t receive any overflow, but to butter Salman, FWICA produced a non-cooperation letter against him which according to Galani is baseless.
After Galani filed a legal complaint, the court called the representative of Salman and inquired the basis on which they were asking for money. The representatives failed to provide a definite reason which ended in the court ruling in favor of Galani and stayed the FWICA’s non-cooperation order.
Galani added “I cannot tell you what I’ve gone through during the last three years. My mental agony and the money on lawyers has left me drained. I’ve filed a Rs. 250-crore defamation case against Salman for mental agony, harassment, loss of face. Who will give me back the 3 years that I’ve lost?”