Nitesh Tiwari’s 2016 blockbuster wrestling drama Dangal, starring Aamir Khan, would’ve made Babita Phogat a household name, but it didn’t do too well for her family financially. In a new interview with News 24, the wrestler-turned-politician spilled the beans on the compensation the Phogat family received from the makers for the rights to make a movie on the
When asked how much money the Phogat family received from the makers of Dangal, she said it was less than 1% of the total box office collection of the film. For the uninitiated, Dangal earned around ₹2,000 crore at the global box office. When the anchor asked if the Phogat family received ₹20 crore from the makers, she clarified that it was half of 10% of that, around ₹1 crore. This deal was cracked way before Aamir Khan came on board as a producer, with director Nitesh Tiwari’s team at the scripting stage itself.
“My father (Mahavir Singh Phogat) had said only one thing – ‘We want people’s respect and love. Leave everything else’,” Babita said. She added that she became a household name thanks to the people, and not so much the movie itself. She also recalled when Aamir came on board, his team suggested changing the characters’ names too, but Mahavir didn’t relent. Babita also revealed that after Dangal became a huge commercial success, her father proposed to Aamir’s team that they open a wrestling academy in Haryana. “Of course, we were in talks with his team regarding the opening of an academy. They said neither yes nor no,” Babita said, adding that the academy never materialised eventually.
Co-produced by Siddharth Roy Kapur-led UTV Motion Pictures and Aamir Khan Productions, Dangal starred Aamir as Mahavir Singh Phogat, Fatima Sana Shaikh and Zaira Wasim as Geeta Phogat, and Sanya Malhotra and Suhani Bhatnagar as Babita Phogat. Sakshi Tanwar played the Phogat sisters’ mother. It’s regarded as Hindi cinema’s biggest global hit till date.