Rajkumar Hirani and Aamir Khan’s PK was a big hit and a topic of conversation for an extremely long time. However, the film reminded the audience of another film which had been released two years before the Anushka Sharma starrer PK. The film shared a stark resemblance to Umesh Shukla’s OMG -Oh My God!, which starred Akshay Kumar and Paresh Rawal in the lead roles. Now, in a recent interview with Friday Talkies, the filmmaker has opened up about the comparison between the two films.
Umesh Shukla on being bribed Rs. 8 crore not to make OMG – Oh My God!
During the conversation with Friday Talkies, Umesh Shukla recalled the rumours that surrounded his 2012 hit film, OMG – Oh My God! The filmmaker revealed that there were rumours that Vidhu Vinod Chopra had bribed him Rs. 8 crores not to make the film. In the interview, he addressed those rumours and completely denied them. He was quoted as saying:
“At that time, there were even rumours that Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who was part of PK, gave me Rs. 8 crore to not make the film. But that was just gossip, nothing like that actually happened.”
In the same conversation, Umesh Shukla shared that Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Rajkumar Hirani, Aamir Khan, and Abhijat are all extremely talented people. He added that they won’t do something as cheap and petty as bribing another creative person. He revealed that these were just talks that floated around back then, but there was no truth to it. He was quoted as saying:
“Wo apne aap mein itne talented log hain. Rajkumar Hirani sahab, Abhijat, Vidhu Vinod Chopra sahab, Aamir Khan sahab, sab log itne talented hain ki wo itni unchi harkat karte hi nahi the paisa dene ke liye. Yeh sab ud chali thi uss samay par, aisa kuch nahi tha.”
Umesh Shukla on comparison between OMG – Oh My God! and PK
Umesh opened up about similar concepts from his 2012 release OMG – Oh My God and Aamir Khan’s PK , which was released in 2014. He shared that the team might have had a similar idea, which was not unheard of. He added that if Aamir’s film were to be released before OMG, then the audience would have found his work to be a reflection of the other. He revealed that Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and Abhijat Joshi had all seen his film, so some similarities were bound to happen. He was quoted as saying:
“I think they might’ve had a similar idea in mind. If PK had been released before my film, people might have said that mine resembled PK. Rajkumar Hirani, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, and writer Abhijat Joshi had all seen my play. So, when someone works on a similar subject, there’s bound to be some reflection. If you’re making a love story, and someone says ‘I love you’ in that film, well, of course they will. It’s a love story.”
More about OMG – Oh My God! and PK
OMG – Oh My God! starred Paresh Rawal, who played the role of an atheist who had sued God after his shop was destroyed in an earthquake, leading to a courtroom drama that questions the practices of religious institutions. PK, on the other hand, portrayed Aamir Khan in the role of an alien who loses his communication device and is forced to confront how religion shapes people’s beliefs, often being misused by so-called ‘godmen’.
What are your thoughts on Umesh Shukla’s revelation about the similarities between OMG and PK?
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