Two renowned Bollywood actors, Amir Khan and Sunny Deol, first collaborated on a major project titled '#Batwara1947'. This was their first serious professional collaboration, which generated significant interest among fans. However, serious disagreements arose between the actors due to production delays and subsequent business decisions.
According to reports, the main reason for dissatisfaction was a substantial commercial loss amounting to millions of rupees.
OTT deal became a source of dispute
According to the publication Filmfare, a major OTT platform offered a significant sum for the digital rights to the film 'Batwara 1947' (originally titled 'Lahore 1947'). The offer was over 600 million rupees. A commercial agreement was made between Sunny Deol and producer Amir Khan, stipulating that Sunny would receive 50 percent of the film's total profit. Thus, the 600 million rupee offer was highly lucrative and attractive to Sunny, but Amir Khan had different plans.
When this OTT deal offer came in, Amir Khan was busy preparing for the release of his other film, 'Sitare Zameen Par'. He aimed to conduct a new experiment with digital content in India, considering releasing the film via YouTube under a 'pay-per-view' or 'video-on-demand' model to launch a new subscription model in the country. Taking this creative and commercial risk, Amir rejected the guaranteed offer from the OTT platform worth 600 million rupees.
Hit to box office collections
Amir Khan's decision proved risky and ultimately resulted in negative consequences. When 'Batwara 1947' was released in theaters, it failed to achieve significant success and turned out to be a flop. Following the unsatisfactory performance of the film, the value of its OTT rights was halved, dropping to around 300 million rupees. Where a profit of 600 million rupees was previously expected, there is now a direct drop of 300 million rupees.
Loss of 50% profit
This significant 50 percent reduction in profit directly impacted Sunny Deol's financial standing. According to the contract, the amount due to Sunny was halved, leading him to express strong dissatisfaction with Amir Khan. It was because of this loss and the manner in which the decision was made during the film's premiere that Sunny Deol and Amir Khan found themselves in confrontation, causing their disagreements.
Although this information is based on a Filmfare report, Aaj Tak does not confirm it. Neither actor has made any official statements on this matter yet.