Here’s why Salman Khan sold Radhe to ZEE Studios

By: Mohnish Singh

A couple of days ago, we reported that Bollywood star Salman Khan had sold his upcoming cop-drama Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai to ZEE Studios for a whopping amount of 2300 million. While fans were happy to know the latest development, the deal did raise many eyebrows because Khan had earlier signed a contract with Yash Raj Films for theatrical rights of the film, Amazon Prime for digital rights, T-Series for music rights, and ZEE for satellite rights.

Delving deep into the matter, an entertainment portal has brought out some interesting details about the multi-million deal. A source informs the portal, “YRF had entered into an agreement with Salman Khan Films (SKF) to distribute the film globally on a commission basis, which meant that the income for SKF would vary according to the business the film does theatrically. There is always an element of uncertainty in such deals, particularly in times of Covid-19 pandemic as one cannot be sure about the footfalls and thereby returns from cinema halls. On the other hand, he had entered into a digital deal with Amazon, who had exclusive streaming rights for the film, 8 weeks after its theatrical release. The satellite rights were with ZEE, who could premiere it on their channel 8 weeks after the OTT premiere, and music rights were with T-Series.”

The source goes on to add that Khan felt that having all rights under one umbrella would make things a bit simpler and convenient as he could take business decisions without involving multiple parties. “It is always better to have all rights sold to the same studio as that makes the recovery model easier. Salman and Aditya Chopra spoke on this and mutually decided to part ways before they collaborated again on Tiger 3 from March. Adi understands business better than anyone else in the industry and gave him his nod. While Salman got an upfront amount of ₹230 crores (2300 million), making him earn a table profit of over ₹100 crores (1000 million), the studio now has all the rights thereby opening up various modes of revenue – ranging from satellite revenues from advertisers, OTT revenue from ZEE5, monetization of advertisement revenue from YouTube and other music apps. In-case, the on-ground Covid-19 scenario turns worse, ZEE can always go back and opt for the hybrid release model for Radhe by bringing it on OTT platform within 2 to 3 weeks after the theatrical release,” adds the source.

Also starring Disha Patani and Randeep Hooda in prominent roles, Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai is scheduled to release on Eid 2021.