Producer Manish Shah of Goldmines Telefilms has confirmed that the makers of Shehzada compensated him with Rs9 crore to avoid the release of Ala Vaikunthapuramuloo (2020) in Hindi.
The film's scheduled theatrical release on 26 January was cancelled after the producers of the Kartik Aaryan film stepped in.
Earlier in the day, T-Series and the makers of Shehzada had attributed the cancellation to a production decision and denied allegations of Kartik Aaryan's 'unprofessionalism'.
Producer Bhushan Kumar said, "We, the producers, felt that Shehzada should be released in theatre first and not the Hindi [dubbed] version of Ala Vaikunthapuramuloo. Hence we requested Goldmines not to release the Hindi version.
"Release of a film is always the producer's decision and not the actor's. I have known Kartik since the beginning of his career. We have done multiple films together. He is one of the most professional actors I have worked with."
Manish Shah, promoter, director and chairman of Goldmines Telefilms, asked why any production house would step in to ask him not to release the film. "Why would the producers not want to release the film? Why would they want to stop the release of this film? It [Shehzada] is a remake of this movie. They came and met me and clearly said they don't want this movie to be released."
Shah confirmed that the producers told him that if he chose to release the dubbed Hindi version, they would be forced to withdraw the theatrical release for Shehzada. Since the producers were known to him, Shah said he did not want them to incur losses. In return, he has been compensated with Rs9 crore towards the loss he would have made.
"I will release it on the satellite channel Dhinchaak on 6 February," Shah said. "I don't want to release it in theatres. I have lost interest there. They bought the rights from me for Rs9 crore."
The Goldmines promoter added, "The producers told me that if I release the movie, they will have to stop their movie. Then they offered me Rs9 crore for the rights of the film. They had to compensate me somehow."
Speaking to the entertainment website Pinkvilla.com, Shah had said he had incurred a cost of Rs2 crore towards dubbing the Allu Arjun film. Incidentally, Shah had also purchased the theatrical rights to the recent Allu Arjun hit, Pushpa: The Rise (2021). The film made an unprecedented run at the box office, taking home Rs94.34 crore as of Sunday. By comparison, the Ranveer Singh-led multi-starrer 83 (2021) only managed to make Rs98.63 crore.