Anil Sharma reveals Gadar 2's budget, says extras agreed to work for free food

Filmmaker Anil Sharma has been open about working with a limited budget on his latest release Gadar 2. Recently, he revealed more details about how the makers cut costs on the movie. In an interview with Instant Bollywood, the director clarified that he is not pointing fingers at anyone, but he did not have an ideal budget for Gadar 2.

2 things you need to know

• Gadar 2 starring Sunny Deol and Ameesha Patel was helmed by Anil Sharma.
• The film has minted ₹506 crore in India and is expected to beat Pathaan's record (₹543 crore).

Anil Sharma says Gadar 2 team took meagre salaries

During the interview, Anil Sharma admitted that Gadar 2 was green-lit at a difficult time for the Bollywood industry. He revealed that the production house initially approved a budget of ₹40 crore, even though according to him it should have been around ₹100 crore. However, later on, when they realised that there was a good market for the film, the budget of the movie was finalised at ₹60 crore. 

(Gadar 2 director talks about paying minimum fees to the cast and crew | Image: Varinder Chawla)

"Gadar is a brand, the actors are a brand, but the industry wasn’t doing so well at the time; that’s how things work. They couldn’t give me what I wanted, but still, they gave me ₹60 crore. It wasn’t enough, but it was a lot, considering the situation. All of us, the entire unit, we took minimum wages to cut costs," the director said. 

Anil Sharma reveals background actors worked for free food

Anil Sharma further revealed that owing to the tight budget, the background actors working on the sets of Gadar 2 agreed to work for free food due to their love for the first film. "We arranged for thousands of extras through organisations; we promised them food and nothing else," he added. He also revealed that around 5,000 to 6,000 people worked as background actors for the second installment of the blockbuster movie.