Amit Rai Adds Twist to Paresh Rawal’s ‘OMG2’ Revelation
He wanted to keep Akshay Kumar out, says director
Paresh Rawal’s recent podcast, where he spoke of OMG2 being “taken away” from him, has stirred up a controversy, with the film’s director Amit Rai in turn accusing Rawal of dubious conduct.
“What is he talking about? I had tremendous respect for him, I still do. But this not the right behaviour for an artiste of Pareshji’s stature,” Amit Rai said.
Rawal didn’t want Akshay Kumar to be part of OMG2, Rai claimed. “Akshay is a major stakeholder in all his projects. Paresh knew if that if he did OMG2 with Akshay, he would scarcely benefit financially. It would have been 90 percent Akshayji’s,” he explained. “So Pareshji took me to Ajay Devgn to get him to play ‘God’ in place of Akshay Kumar.”
Amit Rai went on to say that Ajay Devgn “refused to play along,” and instead, “told us to get clearance from Akshay, and said he would be part of OMG2 only after that.” He added, “Of course, no clearance was possible. Akshay was not even aware of the game being played behind his back.”
Eventually, OMG2 was made with Pankaj Tripathi replacing Paresh Rawal.
While insisting that what he said was the truth, Amit Rai said, “I don’t know why he [Paresh Rawal] is doing it [putting forward a different version.] But I have my film Oh My Dogg coming up for release on July 31. I would prefer to focus on that, rather than talk about a non-existent controversy from three years ago.
