Ra. One – A 150 crores affair? The real picture

April 12, 2011 - 10:18 AM IST

Ever since Ra.One was announced, there have been speculations galore around its scale and budget. Though the makers never went on the records when it came to the budget spent on the film, insiders from trade did peg this Shah Rukh Khan starrer to be costliest ever with the making costs comfortably crossing the 100 crores mark. Now that the First Look of the film is out, all doubts around the film being the most expensive ever have been quashed.

Ra. One – A 150 crores affair? The real picture

"The film hasn't become costly during the process of its making; it was always supposed to be expensive right from the time film's script was being written. Later when the process of storyboarding started, Shah Rukh and Anubhav realised that Ra. One would require much more than just 100 crores. As things stand today, the making itself has cost over 125 crores. This doesn't include Shah Rukh's remuneration as he is the film's producer as well and hence is a partner in all profits that come along", confirms an industry source on condition of anonymity.

Given the fact that even on a conservative side Shah Rukh's fees wouldn't be less than 25 crores, the cost of making Ra.One elevates to a good 150 crores. This would be notches above Rajnikanth's Endhiran/Robot (132 crores) which is the costliest India film ever made and Bollywood's Blue which was pegged at 100 crores. Going by the super-success of Endhiran which was a regional film and had a limited market in Hindi speaking circuits, the makers of Ra.One are confident though that they would not just recover the amount but also make neat profits, courtesy the huge market that Shah Rukh commands.

"Not to forget the scale at which the film has been made", says Anubhav Sinha who has invested half a decade into the making of this film, "The kind of VFX that would have seen in the film belong to never seen before variety. Also, when we claim that the film is big, it is big in all regards. It was all planned though."

Continuing in the same vein, he adds, "We invested as many as two years into the pre-production of the film, the actual filming was spread through one full year and then the post-production has been a year long process as well. Don't forget that Ra.One is not one of those films where only the shooting days consume money."

When asked to quote the exact money that has gone into making the film, Anubhav just smiled it all away. "Please ask Shah Rukh about it. All I can say is that the amount of money Shah Rukh has pumped into the film is unimaginable. Trust me, it will all show on screen. I can see how passionate Shah Rukh is about this film and he has taken it upon himself to make Ra.One the biggest of them all."

We hope the claims are indeed worth it Anubhav.