Pen Marudhar reportedly outbid rival distributors for Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Ranbir Kapoor and Alia Bhatt starrer in what would be one of the biggest rights deals in Hindi cinema.
Pen Marudhar has reportedly paid Rs 300 crore for the global theatrical rights to Sanjay Leela Bhansali's Love And War, according to an exclusive report in Bollywood Hungama. If the figure holds, it puts the Ranbir Kapoor, Alia Bhatt and Vicky Kaushal starrer in rarefied territory even before a single ticket goes on sale.
The acquisition itself isn't news. Trade had already pointed to Pen Marudhar as the distributor behind this one. What's new is the price tag, and it's steep enough that multiple outlets are now treating it as the headline figure rather than a footnote.
Bollywood Hungama's report says several players were circling the film before Pen Marudhar closed the deal, and that Bhansali has walked away with what's being called the best value on offer. Make of that what you will, but a period action drama from a director who doesn't do things small was always going to draw a crowd of bidders.
Love And War is set for release on January 21, 2027, and this is the kind of film where the number attached to the rights deal tells you almost as much as the cast does. Three A-listers, a Bhansali canvas, and a distributor willing to commit nine figures before the teaser has even dropped. That's a statement about where the industry thinks this one lands.
The first-look posters went out last week and did their job. Social media had plenty to say, as it tends to when Bhansali's visual grammar shows up unmissably, all velvet and gold and period silhouette. Whether that translates into the kind of opening weekend that justifies a Rs 300 crore rights buy is a separate conversation, and one nobody can have honestly for another fifteen months.
What happens next is more immediate. Bhansali is reportedly planning to drop the teaser around Diwali, and there's talk of it being attached to prints of Ramayana, which would put Love And War in front of one of the year's biggest theatrical audiences before anyone's even seen a full trailer. That's a smart play if it comes off, piggybacking on a release that's already guaranteed footfall.
None of these numbers are officially confirmed by Bhansali's team, Pen Marudhar or the film's producers, and Bollywood Hungama's report is the only outlet to carry the specific Rs 300 crore figure so far. Trade reporting on rights deals tends to firm up or shift in the weeks after a first number leaks, so treat this as the opening bid in the conversation rather than the final word.
For now, the industry's waiting on two things: whether that teaser actually lands with Ramayana, and whether Pen Marudhar's math checks out once the film is in cinemas.
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