OMG 2 producer Ashwin Varde slams Paresh Rawal’s script claims as unethical and shocking, revealing the actor wanted to keep Akshay Kumar out.
Paresh Rawal claimed in a recent podcast that the original idea and story for the hit movie OMG 2 (2023) belonged entirely to him. The veteran actor expressed deep disappointment, alleging that despite his extensive involvement in developing the script alongside writer-director Amit Rai, he was completely wiped from the credits.
He even revealed that he intentionally stayed away from approaching Akshay Kumar for the project because he wanted to keep the film as a standalone story rather than turning it into a commercial franchise. According to Rawal, the script was later taken to the Bollywood superstar without his permission, which made him walk away from the film completely.
Now, OMG 2 producer Ashwin Varde has broken his silence to completely dismantle the senior actor’s claims in an explosive public retaliation. Addressing the situation head-on, Varde called Rawal’s accusations shocking, totally untrue, and completely baseless. He stated that he has been left with no choice but to share his side of the story and clear the air about how OMG 2 actually got made.
According to the producer, the whole journey began when senior actor Pavan Malhotra recommended writer-director Amit Rai to him after they worked together on the film Mubarakan. Varde and Rai initially met for a completely different movie but quickly became close friends, often meeting at Rai’s office in Bandra. It was during one of these casual chats that Rai shared a unique story idea that immediately stuck with the producer, an idea that would eventually turn into OMG 2.
ALSO READ: Paresh Rawal’s Shocking Reveal: Why He Walked Out Of Akshay Kumar’s OMG 2
When he first heard the story, Varde immediately noticed that it felt exactly like the first OMG movie. When he pointed this out, Rai explained that he had written it that way because Paresh Rawal, who was a good friend of Rai after starring in his earlier movie Road To Sangam, had explicitly asked him to stay as close to the original OMG style as possible. This instantly worried Varde.
He knew that any movie in that format could absolutely not be made without Akshay Kumar’s official approval, since the legal rights belonged strictly to him. When Rai had previously raised this legal concern with Rawal, the veteran actor reportedly told him that the rights belonged to him instead and that there was nothing to worry about. Rawal even claimed that even if they made a hundred parts of OMG, Rai would be the one writing and directing them, strongly implying that he owned the franchise. Based on that promise, Rai finished the script entirely on his own, with the only main difference being that the divine character eventually played by Akshay Kumar was originally written as a fakir.
For Varde, this revelation exposed an incredibly unprofessional and unethical plot. He realized that Rawal was actively attempting to duplicate the OMG formula under a completely different title to bypass the legal owners, an act the producer candidly described as nothing short of ‘creative theft’.
The OMG 2 producer also explained why several big stars rejected the script when Rawal first pitched it to them. While Rawal claimed in his podcast that they simply turned it down, Varde noted he left out the real reason: every single actor recognized the script as OMG and told Rawal that it was Akshay Kumar’s property, asking why they should get into something that legally belonged to someone else without his permission. Realizing that a brilliant script was stuck in a legal mess, Varde’s company, Wakaoo Films, officially stepped in and bought the script.
The producer emphasized that the script was, and still is, officially registered under the name of Amit Rai, who is legally the only writer of the film. Varde said that he finds it completely unfair for Rawal to suddenly demand credit for the story now, especially since the actor never brought up the topic during their many meetings. In fact, Varde revealed that after buying the film, he only met with Rawal because the director asked him to try and cast him in the movie. They met multiple times at popular spots in Mumbai, like the Willingdon Club and Mangii Ferra restaurant, strictly to talk about Rawal’s potential role.
The final breaking point happened during a third meeting at Soho House. Varde honestly told Rawal that because the story was an obvious copy of OMG, it would be wrong not to take it to Akshay Kumar first. Rawal’s reaction was intensely combative. He emphatically shouted that the film could not be associated with OMG, repeating the statement stubbornly without offering any logical or plausible explanation.
Varde noted that it became blindingly obvious that Rawal harbored a personal agenda to completely exclude Akshay Kumar from the project. Comparing the situation to replication classics, Varde stated that as a responsible producer, he could never damage a peer’s interests, noting that making a movie identical to Sholay without permission from Sippy Films is illegal, and simply changing the iconic Thakur into a female lead wouldn’t change the underlying theft.
Even though Varde explained the legal and ethical problems of bypassing the franchise owners, Rawal refused to budge. Ultimately, because Wakaoo Films legally owned the script, the production team chose to do the right thing, ignored the resistance, and successfully brought OMG 2 to life the proper way.
Interestingly, Paresh Rawal and Akshay Kumar recently shared screen space in Ahmed Khan’s comic caper Welcome To The Jungle.
