It’s one of the most anticipated releases of the year, and when it went under the hammer, the trade was naturally agog. Who would bag the rights of Dabangg 2, and for how much? Practically every production house had queued up to bid for this film, featuring Salman Khan and Sonakshi Sinha.

Finally, UTV Motion Pictures emerged the winner, creating a record. The figure: a staggering Rs 140 crore for all the rights, except the music rights. This is the highest ever acquisition price in the history of the Hindi film industry. Competitors like Reliance Entertainment and Fox Star Studios were also in the running and are said to have offered Rs 115 crore and Rs 105 crore, respectively, for the sequel to the 2010 action comedy. Siddharth Roy Kapur, CEO, UTV Motion Pictures, said, “Not true.” Director Arbaaz Khan did not revert to our query.