Ganesh paid for Gabbar Singh title clash

In an unprecedented move in Tollywood, leading producer Bandla Ganesh revealed that he had to shell out a whopping Rs 25 lakh for the rights to use the title of Gabbar Singh.Ganesh went through legal negotiations with B-town producer Rohan Sippy as the latter staunchly objected to the use of the Gabbar Singh name in the title of the former’s film. Sippy said it amounts to cashing in on a brand name, as Gabbar Singh is a popular character from the evergreen hit Hindi film Sholay.In his defence, Ganesh had stated that his film has nothing to do with the story of Sholay and is, in fact, a typical cop story and the Telugu remake of the Salman Khan starrer Dabangg. The Gabbar Singh name, he added, has been strictly used for inspirational purposes only. However, the Sippys would hear nothing of it and stuck to their guns; urging Ganesh to go in for an alternative title. But even after the film was passed through the Censor Board and the name tweaked to Pawan Kalyan’s Gabbar Singh, the makers of Sholay could not be placated. Finally, Ganesh had to pay up to use the name of a character considered an important cult figure in the history of Indian cinema. “Rohan Sippy and the rest of the family objected to the title of our film, but we couldn’t change it as it had become popular with the Telugu audience. We paid a sum of Rs 25 lakh and received a no-objection letter from them to sort out everything,” explained Ganesh. With the funny cop story already making waves at the box office, Ganesh has erased the bitter memories of the dud Teen Maar his earlier film with Pawan Kalyan. “Gabbar Singh” is an all-time industry hit and its overwhelming success is yet to sink in,” he said.