Paresh Rawal has said that the idea which later became OMG 2 started with him, but that he stepped away from the film after the script changed. In an interview with Vickey Lalwani, the actor claimed he was involved in the early development of the story and was not credited for the concept.
Rawal said he had first taken the idea to filmmaker Amit Rai after watching Rai’s film Road to Sangam. According to him, he told Rai that he was not a writer, but could help with ideas and screenplay-related inputs. He said the two then began working on a story that was meant to be educational and entertaining without becoming vulgar.
What Rawal says the original story was
Rawal described the early version as a story about a boy whose private act is filmed and circulated, leaving him and his family in distress. He said the boy’s father was initially imagined as a tourist guide at the Khajuraho temple. Rai, according to Rawal, suggested changing the father’s background and making him a part-time priest at the Mahakal Temple.
Rawal also said sexologist Dr Prakash Kothari was brought into the discussions. He claimed there were several meetings as the team tried to handle the subject carefully. The actor’s point was that the film was being shaped around a parent’s fight for his son, with the issue of sex education at the centre.
Why he says it was not meant to be OMG 2
One of Rawal’s main claims is that the project was not originally planned as a sequel to OMG: Oh My God!. He said the first film had a divine character because the court case in that story was against God. In the new story, he felt a godly figure was unnecessary.
Rawal said the guiding character in the early script was meant to be a biker, not God. He compared the idea to Kader Khan’s character in Muqaddar Ka Sikandar, suggesting that the role was meant to guide the father rather than appear as a divine presence.
He also said he had thought of Ajay Devgn and Salman Khan for the biker’s part. Rawal said he did not approach Akshay Kumar at that stage because he believed people would then assume the film was connected to OMG, which was not his plan.
How Akshay Kumar entered the picture, according to Rawal
Rawal claimed that the script later reached producer Ashwin Varde and that Akshay Kumar showed interest in doing the film. He said he was still under the impression that the project was being worked out when the matter moved ahead.
He also recalled a meeting with Vipul Shah of Optimystix, where Akshay’s name was discussed. Rawal said he told them that if he had wanted to make the film with Akshay, he would have gone to him directly, since the two had already been partners on OMG.
According to Rawal, Amit Rai later called him to say Akshay wanted to do the film. Rawal added that Rai had tentatively written OMG 2 on the script because the genre was similar, and that this contributed to the film being treated as a sequel.
Rawal says he declined the film
Rawal said Akshay later asked him to be part of the project, but he refused. He said he no longer recognised the film as the story he had lived with from the beginning. His objection, as he described it, was that the addition of a divine character changed the nature of the film.
The actor also claimed he received no credit for the story or concept. He said his name was not mentioned anywhere, which he described as the saddest part of the episode.
Rawal further said Amit Rai, Akshay Kumar, Ashwin Varde, Ajay Devgn, Karan Johar and Salman Khan knew that the idea and story were his. He also suggested that Ajay and Salman may have declined because they felt the subject could become controversial.
At the time of writing, Akshay Kumar, Amit Rai and the producers of OMG 2 had not publicly responded to Paresh Rawal’s claims.
Source: Bollywood Hungama.