Only months after Vipul Shah turned heads with a $27 million distribution deal for his production of London Dreams, a major production company offered more than $33 million to the Bollywood bad boy who starred in that movie, it is reported.

Salman Khan was offered that amount on September 3^rd in Mumbai for the distribution rights to Veer, a film which he wrote and will star in as lead actor. The offer includes worldwide rights to the film, according to sources familiar with the deal.

Also starring Sohail Khan and model-turned-actress Mithun Chakroborty, Salman Khan has actively promoted Veer in recent weeks. Many Bollywood insiders point out that the recent deal is motivated by a war of bragging rights as the industry’s top actor, a competition that includes three Khans –- Salman, ShahRukh, and Aamir. ShahRukh Khan earned a distribution deal of more than $20 million for Om Shanti Om. Shah’s distribution deal for London Dreams was offered before a single scene of the film was shot.

“Salman is also keen on taking his war with ShahRukh Khan further by taking active interest in every single department of his most ambitious venture to date, Veer,” one executive told reporters in Mumbai after the deal was announced. “The staggering price offered is a sort of moral victory for Salman, as he is now considered the hottest star of Bollywood, in terms of market price overtaking [ShahRukh Khan] by leaps and bounds!”

The September 3^rd offer is almost ten times higher than the initial asking price for him to star in the movie. In February, Salman Khan first asked for a raise from $3.3 million to $4.5 million because of the weight he had to gain to play the lead role.

A period piece produced by Vijay Galani, Veer is set in 1800s India. Salman Khan plays a warrior fighting the British Raj, a role similar to Russell Crowe’s Maximus Aurelius in the Oscar-winning Gladiator.

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