‘I paid Amitabh Bachchan Rs 4 crore’: Producer claims he paid Big B to act in a film that never materialised | Bollywood News
5 min readChennaiJan 31, 2026 05:49 PM IST
Producer Shailendra Singh, who has bankrolled National Award-winning films like Page 3, Traffic Signal and also produced director Shoojit Sircar’s debut film Yahaan, recently spoke about being embroiled in a tussle with Amitabh Bachchan and Shoojit Sircar over the rights of the film Shoebite. He claimed that he had originally developed the story of the film under the title Johnny Walker, which was later renamed Shoebite by Shoojit. Shailendra accused Shoojit of reselling his film to UTV’s Ronnie Screwvala and making the film under a different banner and title, despite him having already paid Rs 4 crore in advance to Amitabh Bachchan for the project.
Shailendra accuses Shoojit Sircar of stealing his film’s idea
Shailendra recalled backing Shoojit Sircar’s directorial debut Yahaan. While the film received positive reviews, it failed to perform at the box office. He then began working on another project titled Johnny Walker. “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. 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,” he told Siddharth Kannan.
Despite paying the advance, Shailendra said he was taken aback to learn that Amitabh Bachchan wanted to produce the film under his own production house, AB Corp. “I had a concert on December 31, where all the big names of Bollywood like Shah Rukh Khan, Priyanka Chopra were present. The CEO of AB Corp came there and he told me that ‘Your film Johnny Walker will be produced by AB Corp.’ I said, ‘I am already producing the film, I have appointed Mr Bachchan as the actor for the film and have paid him Rs 4 crore and the contract is signed. I don’t want AB Corp to produce my film. I just want Mr Bachchan as an actor’.”
Shailendra said that his refusal to give up the rights of the film did not go down well and eventually led to him 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. The film was made as Johnny Mastana by Ronnie Screwvala (founder of production house UTV Group). It was directed by Shoojit Sircar, featuring Amitabh Bachchan and Dia Mirza. The film hasn’t released till today. Why?”
After discovering that UTV had backed the project he had originally developed, Shailendra said he filed a legal case against the makers. “We filed a case. International studio also filed a case. Multiple cases were filed against the film. Our case is still going on and then I met Mr Bachchan once on a flight, I asked him what is this? He didn’t say anything. He just smiled. He is too dignified to say anything,” he said.
Shoebite was never released despite the court giving an order in UTV’s favour in 2012. However, Shoojit Sircar and Amitabh Bachchan went on to collaborate on films like Piku and Gulabo Sitabo.
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David Dhawan warned me against producing Devdas
The producer also recalled another instance when he was set to bankroll Sanjay Leela Bhansali’s iconic film Devdas and had even paid an advance of Rs 11 lakh. However, he walked away from the project overnight following David Dhawan’s advice. “I spent a lot of time with Sanjay Leela Bhansali on Devdas, to make Devdas with him. I wanted to make the film with him. This was the time when I thought that I can be a big producer. I was named in the top six most powerful people in Bollywood by Filmfare. So, I thought I could do these big things. I remember, I hosted a party and gave advance of Rs 11 lakh to produce Devdas. Aishwarya Rai was there, and Sanjay‘s mother was there.”
He added, “There is a solid reason why I left the film and only David Dhawan knows it. He was the reason I left Devdas. It was not Sanjay who told me to leave. There was a undercurrent in it, a big one. I was told to leave Devdas overnight. David Dhawan told me ‘don’t produce such a big film. It is a bad idea.’ I immediately left the film. I love David. He is too good. He knows a lot more about the industry than I do.” Shailendra, however, admitted that he ‘regrets’ his decision.
