To those who were looking forward to seeing Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan together for the fourth time after Karan Arjun, Kuch Kuch Hota Hai and Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam, the saddening news , according to unverified sources, was that the shooting of their big-ticket combo appearance in the proposed Tiger Vs Pathaan had been postponed from March 25 to sometime(unspecified) in 2025.
However a source very close to both Shah Rukh and Aditya Chopra has another story to tell.
“This is a classic case of buying time.And it’s not Shah Rukh, Salman or Adi(Chopra) buying time. Nobody knows where these Salman-Shah Rukh Pathaan-Tiger stories are coming from. There has been no official statement from Yash Raj on this project.Agreed their scenes together in Pathaan set the screen ablaze. But an SRK-Salman project is not financially feasible at the moment.”
The source further explains, “See, Shah Rukh and Salman both charge close to a 100-120 crores each. Shah Rukh is known to give Yash Raj Films a discount. But Salman doesn’t lower his fees for them. And if Salman is not descaling his prohibitive fee, neither would SRK. Call it ego or plain self respect, neither SRK nor Salman will accept a penny less that what the other is charging. This means a minimum of Rs 250-300 crores goes into paying the lead actors. The rest of actors plus the shooting budget would drive the project into a Rs 800-1000 range. Recovery on that would be impossible.”
So is Tiger Vs Pathaan likely to happen? “Maybe, if someone cracks a two-hero script like Walter Hill’s 48 Hours,” says the source ,not too hopefully.