Apun bhai ka favourite hai

Rs 12 crore

Rs 10 crore

Rs 9 crore

Rookie producer S K Sharma, who is currently making a film, approached an overseas agent when he ran out of money. The agent told him the underworld would have given him instant cash had his film starred any one of these three actors – even in a cameo.

"The agent told me, 'Humare paas Dubai, Malaysia aur London se log hai jo bhai (Chhota Shakeel, Chhota Rajan and Dawood Ibrahim) ka paisa market mein ghumate hain. Ek star ko leke aa jao aur maal leke apni film complete karo," said Sharma.

Naresh Mohnot, who has distributed the majority of Salman's films and is currently vice-president of Indian Motion Pictures Producers Association, said, "The underworld wants stars like Salman, Sunjay and Shah Rukh.

They are the real money-makers overseas, so to acquire overseas rights, middlemen from the underworld pressure producers to break deals with their regular distributors."

"Hum ko bhi filme banane ka haq hai. Jo bhi star ho, par yeh kuch underworld se mile hue agent market mein unka paisa phirana chahate hai," said Prem Jain, who is on a verge of completing his film Des, and plans to cast a big Bollywood star in a cameo so his film makes big money overseas.

"My friends have encountered such threats. I always make and distribute small films. I don't go in for huge star cast projects, so underworld doesn't come to me. Aur mein film Indian audiences ke liye banata hoon na ki overseas ke liye," said producer Mukesh Bhatt. He added that as the corporate world has now entered Bollywood in a big way, only very desperate filmmakers have to turn to the underworld for funds.