Lavish budget for 'Hero' like my other films, says Salman

Actor Salman Khan claims that he didn't compromise on the budget for his production "Hero" just because it features newcomers and allotted it a sum on par with his other big-budget films.

"The biggest challenge for me in this movie was not to care about the budget. Caring about the budget even a bit, could make this film into a disastrous film. So the kind of budgets that I work on, we've done the same budget for Athiya and Sooraj because their journey starts from this film onwards, so we didn't want to leave any stone unturned," he told media at the music launch of the Sooraj Pancholi-Athiya Shetty starrer.

"So we paid attention to everything from the music to selection of the director to Nikhil spending days and nights with these two, and they going through their training in dancing, action and other such things. I was working on 'Bajrangi..' but my concentration was more on this than 'Bajrangi..' because I've seen my life journey but their careers start now, it shouldn't be that fingers should point at me, that I've put them into trouble."

Director Nikhil Advani had claimed at a previous event that Salman wanted his film to be shot on a big scale, on the lines to their previous collaboration, "Salaam-e-ishq".

The film is releasing on September 11 and Salman admits that releasing the music just a week prior to the release wasn't a great idea. "Obviously the music has picked up and become a big hit, but I think we erred as we should've released the music at least four months before. As producers, we've messed up on that. I think we need slightly more time for music, especially in a love story. For all the 5-6 songs to become hits we need sufficient time. It's important to promote it in this short time because their whole life depends on the music of the film."

"Hero" is the second film under the banner of Salman Khan Films after the blockbuster "Bajrangi Bhaijaan".