Salman and Shah Rukh are in a race to make their own films with budgets that will set new benchmarks for the industry, reports Shubha Shetty-Saha

They are friends, but that’s not stopping them from taking each other on - professionally, of course. While Salman Khan is all set to make his dream come true with London Dreams which has a budget of approximately Rs 65 crore —it’s being touted as the most expensive film ever made in Bollywood.

Well trust Shah Rukh Khan to come up with some plans of his own — it’s an action film, yet untitled. The estimated budget? A whopping Rs 100 crore!

While Salman’s film will be directed by Vipul Shah, Shah Rukh Khan’s film has Anubhav Sinha wielding the baton.

Talking about London Dreams Vipul Shah says, “It is a film set in the desi milieu of London and the underground music scene in London. It is going to be a very vibrant movie. I am really excited about working with Salman. I loved the script and am looking forward to working on it. Salman is mighty excited about the project as well.” While Salman Khan will be a part of his pricey product, Shah Rukh Khan has not yet made up his mind about acting in his film. Says  Anubhav Sinha, “This film would be heavy on CGI and VFX effects. I am not sure if Shah Rukh Khan would be acting in the film as the script is still being finalised.”

Even though Vipul agrees that its going to be an super budget film, he is not ready to officially divulge the numbers yet. “All I can tell you is that it would be very lavishly shot and would be a very high budget film. We would be shooting 75% of the film in London,” he says.

Anubhav has no qualms about discussing such matters. “The film is obviously huge and there would be extensive pre-production required. Shah Rukh is getting some of the best technicians from the world over to work on it. When SRK says the film has to match the standards set by Spiderman I have to be on my toes.” Rubbishing rumours that it will be an animation film he says, “You don’t spend Rs 100 crore on an animation film. It is going to be an action film with real people.”

Interestingly, Anubhav has had a kind of a tiff with Ajay Devgan during the making of his last film Cash and since then Ajay has vowed never to work with him again. Anubhav had approached SRK even before Cash happened. Both the directors are in the process of finalising their cast.