The biopic ‘MS Dhoni: The Untold Story’ is set to release on September 30 and it is now known that the Indian skipper Mahender Singh Dhoni has received Rs 45 crore for the movie-making rights to his life.
A whopping amount
“Dhoni was given Rs 45 crore for the movie-making rights to his life and access to personal information, documents and pictures, plus Dhoni’s availability for marketing and promotion of the film,” the source said.
“In contrast, Sushant Singh Rajput was paid Rs 2 crore to play Dhoni. In fact, Dhoni’s business manager Arun Pandey, who is also a co-producer of the film, received much more money than Sushant. Pandey got Rs 5 crore.”
According to the source, Dhoni’s biopic receives more money than the films of the Bollywood star Salman Khan.
“The satellite rights of Dhoni: The Untold Story have just been sold for Rs 55 crore which is Rs 5 crores more than what a Salman Khan starrer gets for satellite. Another Rs 20 crore has been recovered through various on-screen endorsements by Sushant Singh Rajput of products that Dhoni endorses.
“The music rights of the film have been sold at Rs 5 crore. And the overseas distribution rights have gone for Rs 10 crore.”
The movie is also slated to be remade in English, for which the aforementioned rights have been secured. “A Hollywood studio has bought the remake rights of Dhoni: The Untold Story from producer Neeraj Pandey and Fox Star Studios for Rs 10 crore. The film will be remade in English now.”
“The Hindi version has already been dubbed in three other languages, Tamil, Telugu and Marathi. No matter how you look at it, it’s a win-win project for the makers,” the source added.
