Salman Khan along with family and friends attended a special screening of Dabangg 3 at the YRF Studios in Andheri, Mumbai. All pictures/Yogen Shah

In picture: Salman's sister Alvira Agnihotri and husband Atul arrive for the special screening Dabangg 3.

Dabangg 3 touted to be as the most anticipated film of this year has been making a buzz since it's announced. Now, we learn that the advance booking has begun for the biggest franchise of Salman Khan. Salman Khan shared the news on his Twitter handle.

Recently Salman Khan in a group interview revealed that Dabangg was originally a dark film with its lead character Chulbul Pandey being "out and out negative". Directed by Abhinav Kashyap, the 2010 film featured Salman as Pandey, a fearless yet corrupt police officer with unorthodox working methods. It received critical acclaim and was a blockbuster upon its release.

In picture: Sohail Khan arrives for Dabangg 3 screening at YRF Studios in Andheri.

Salman Khan further revealed that before him, actor Randeep Hooda and his brother Arbaaz Khan were approached for the project. "It was a very dark film, small film to be made under Rs 2 crore. At that point of time, it had Randeep Hooda and Arbaaz. So Arbaaz said he has been approached for this and it's a good one so just hear it. "Then six-eight months passed before I finally heard it. I think UTV was supposed to do it. I liked the feel of the film but Chulbul was out and out negative."

In picture: Aayush Sharma also attended the special screening Dabangg 3 in Andheri.

Salman said he then suggested changes to Arbaaz and Abhinav incorporated them. "That film didn't have any action, certainly not at this scale. There were no songs and we never get to know who killed the mother... We started working on it and Abhinav agreed to all those changes. He did a very good job with the first one."

In picture: Arbaaz Khan arrives for the special screening of Dabangg 3 in Bandra.

Salman Khan said after the film became a success, they asked Abhinav to make a sequel but he was not so inclined. "We asked him to do the second one but for whatever reasons he said he didn't want to do it, that we didn't let him make his film."

In picture: Producer Bhushan Kumar arrives for the special screening of Dabangg 3 in Andheri.

Dabangg 3 antagonist Balli aka Kichcha Sudeepa arrives for the special screening of the film at the YRF Studios in Andheri.

Director Prabhu Deva was all smile as he arrived for the special screening of Dabangg 3 at the YRF Studios in Andheri.

Actor and producer Nikhil Dwivedi also attended the special screening of his film Dabangg 3 in Andheri.

Dabangg 3 is directed by Prabhu Deva and produced by Salma Khan, Arbaaz Khan and Nikhil Dwivedi under the banner of Salman Khan Films and is slated to release on 20th December, 2019.