Amitabh Bachchan was reportedly paid millions by producer Shailendra Singh for an unreleased movie.
The Page 3 producer during an interview with host Siddharth Kannan made bombshell claims including a fight with Bachchan and Shoojit Sircar over the rights of the film Shoebite.
According to Singh, he had originally developed the story of the film under the title Johnny Walker, which was later renamed Shoebite by Shoojit.
The Traffic Signal producer recalled, “I made an idea of a film called Johnny Walker. We wrote that in our office and we pitched it to Amitabh Bachchan. He was going to play Johnny in the film.”
He recounted, “I took Shoojit to meet Amitabh Bachchan at his bungalow, Jalsa. I made him meet Amitabh Bachchan and the deal was also signed. I paid Amitabh Bachchan Rs 4 crore for acting.”
Singh claimed that despite paying the advance, he learned that the Sholay star wanted to produce the film under his own production house, AB Corp.
Upon learning, he told the CEO of AB Corp, “I said, ‘I am already producing the film. I don’t want AB Corp to produce my film. I just want Mr Bachchan as an actor.’”
In a nutshell, Singh said that his refusal to give up the rights of the film did not go well and he ended up losing the project.
“After that, I lost Shoojit Sircar to Amitabh Bachchan forever. All Amitabh Bachchan’s advertisements are directed by him since that day. I lost my film also,” he said.
In the end, Shailendra Singh revealed that the movie was made as Johnny Mastana by Ronnie Screwvala and it was directed by Shoojit Sircar, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Dia Mirza but hasn’t been released till today.
