In an interview hosted by veteran journalist Rajeev Masand, noted actor Naseeruddin Shah has compared the recent upheaval in the Indian film industry to the demolishing of the Hollywood studio system. He also wondered if fans of Salman Khan will enjoy his masala entertainers in a non-theatre environment.

“It will be interesting to see what will be the reaction of the audience to a Salman Khan film, the audience that whistles and claps and throws coins at the screen and dances in the aisles… What’ll be their reaction when they watch a movie like that at home, alone, or with their children? Will they behave in the same way? I doubt it,” he said.

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However, while almost all Salman Khan movies are heavily panned by critics, they are lapped up by the audience and smoothly sail across the Rs 100 crore mark. It appears that even a pandemic and the subsequent shuttering of theatres hasn’t dented his popularity.

Filmfare quotes an online portal and states that Salman Khan has sold the rights of Radhe: Your Most Wanted Bhai to Zee Studios for a whopping Rs 230 crores.

“Salman has sold the satellite, theatrical (India + Overseas), digital and music rights of Radhe – Your Most Wanted Bhai to Zee Studios for Rs. 230 crores, which is the biggest deal in COVID times. It’s a reasonable deal that has led to a stable profit for Salman whereas Zee, too, doesn’t have much risk involved given that Salman’s films command a great return value in terms of digital and satellite viewing side by side music streaming on various platforms,” the source told the online portal, reports Filmfare.

The report also states that this is a blanket deal considering that Khan’s other films like Kaagaz starring Pankaj Tripathi premiered on Zee5. His past releases like Race 3 and Dabangg 3 also made their television premiere on Zee channels.

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