Will it be Varun or Salman?

Our sources in B-town report that big studios like Eros and Viacom are all queuing up to buy the rights of Telugu super-hit Srimanthudu. The film, which released this August, starred Mahesh Babu and Shruti Haasan and was written and directed by Koratala Siva. With Hindi versions of hit South films proving to be money-spinners for B’wood, it’s hardly a surprise that there’s such a clamour for the remake rights for Srimanthudu.

“The chances are very high that it is Eros which will get the rights of the film,” a source connected to the project told us. “They wanted to show the film to Varun Dhawan. But at the same time, Viacom also wants to crack the deal. Rockline Venkatesh — who produced Bajrangi Bhaijaan — wants to make it with Salman Khan. Right now, Eros is slightly ahead in the race to get the rights.”

Srimanthudu has been declared the second highest grossing Telugu film ever, and its makers are expecting a whopping amount for the remake rights. It might just end up as the costliest remake deal so far.

Bollywood has previously optioned the remake rights of several hit South films, including the Ajay Devgn and Tabu-starrer Drishyam (a remake of the Malayalam film of the same name). Several of Salman Khan’s blockbusters in the past few years have been remakes of Tamil, Telugu, Kannada or Malayalam films.