14 February 2008  - Salman Khan who had hiked up his price to between Rs 10 crore and Rs 15 crore after the success of Partner demanded a paycheck of Rs 20 crore for the lead role in Veer, because the film required him to put on a lot of weight. 

Producer of the film, Vijay Galani, readily agreed. 

"Yes, we are paying him about that much. It's a difficult role to portray. But Salman has taken to it well. He is working out diligently under the guidance of his private trainer. He is also on a special diet," he told the Mumbai Mirror. 

Interestingly, the story for the film, to be directed by Anil Sharma (Apne, 2007), has been penned by Salman Khan. It is likely Salman Khan's paycheck also includes his charge for the story. 

Sharma says he and Khan had been keen to work together for some time. 

"Then one fine day day Salman who walks, talks and thinks films came up with this idea that he's lived with for long. I liked it. We got talking and Veer was on," he recalls. 

"Veer is a period film with an epic feel. It's set in 1880, the shooting should start around the middle of the year. It's a big film being produced by Eros, there are so many details to be ironed out first," Sharma told HT. 

The leading lady for Veer is yet to be finalized but Priyanka Chopra is believed to be in the running. 

Priyanka incidentally earns about Rs 2 crore for a film! 

Scripting of the film is planned to be completed by the end of February when the cast will be finalized. Shooting is expected to begin around the middle of the year. 

Salman Khan's other forthcoming films include: 

Hello (Post Production) directed by Atul Agnihotri with co-stars Katrina Kaif, Isha Koppikar, Sharman Joshi, Amrita Arora, Sohail Khan, Gul Panag, Sharad Saxena and Arbaaz Khan. 

God Tussi Great Ho (Post Production) directed by Rumi Jaffery with co-stars Amitabh Bachchan, Priyanka Chopra, Manisha Koirala and Anupam Kher. 

Heroes (Filming) directed by Sameer Karnik with co-stars Sohail Khan, Vatsal Seth, Sunny Deol, Bobby Deol, Preity Zinta, Mithun Chakraborty, Amrita Arora, Riya Sen and Dino Morea. 

Yuvraaj (Filming) directed by Subhash Ghai with co-stars Katrina Kaif, Anil Kapoor and Zayed Khan. 

Wanted Dead or Alive (Filming) directed by Prabhu Deva with co-stars Ayesha Takia, Om Puri, Aseem Merchant and Mahesh Manjrekar. 

Main Aur Mrs Khanna (Pre Production) directed by Prem Soni with co-stars Kareena Kapoor. 

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