Fourteen years ago, OMG – Oh My God! won our hearts with its brilliant comic moments. Then, in 2023, OMG 2 carried the legacy forward, leaving audiences laughing just as much. But did you know the beloved comedy movie series has a controversial story behind its creation? In a recent podcast, actor Paresh Rawal revealed that the initial idea for OMG 2 was his but upon the film's release he received no credit, which truly saddened him.
In a podcast Paresh claimed that the film initially was an idea that he pitched to director Amit Rai and as the duo brainstormed, the whole thing took a turn that Paresh never wanted for it to become and he was forced to leave the project. He said, “I had approached Amit Rai, the director of Road to Sangam, and asked him if he was planning another film. I told him I wasn’t a writer but I could contribute ideas and help identify where we were going wrong because I understand screenplay to some extent”.
Explaining the storyline further he said, “The story was about a boy who gets caught masturbating, and a video of the incident goes viral, making his life miserable. His father was a tourist guide at the Khajuraho temple. Amit suggested making him a part-time priest at the Mahakal Temple. We developed the script together and even brought sexologist Dr Prakash Kothari on board. We had several meetings because our intention was to make the film educational, entertaining and not vulgar. We were deeply involved in the process”.
The original idea was vastly different from the film that has been made. Paresh never wanted the film to be a sequel of OMG.
However things took a different turn with each conceptualization. Explaining the same, Paresh said, “Our main idea was to have a biker guiding the father, not God. In the first OMG, God appeared because the case was against God. But this film was about a father’s fight to get justice for his son. There was no need for a divine character. We wanted someone like Kader Khan’s character in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar.”
He revealed that he had approached Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan for the biker's role but deliberately chose not to approach Akshay Kumar. However, the tables turned soon enough. He said, “I was under the impression that we were still figuring things out. We even had a meeting with Vipul Shah of Optimystix. They also asked about Akshay, and I said if I wanted to make it with him, I would have approached him directly. Akshay and I were partners in OMG. I didn’t need anyone to bridge the gap,"
A few days later when Amit called Paresh and said Akshay wanted to do the film, the actor understood it was time for him to give up on the project.
Concluding his emotions Paresh said, “The saddest part is that I wasn’t even given credit for the story or the concept. My name wasn’t mentioned anywhere”.
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