Amit Rai is a happy man after OMG2’s success, but is also a little disheartened that people aren’t interested in talking about a new director. “Director ke baare mein bhi baat honi chahiye,” is his sentiment. “I have no words to thank the audience. Despite the Censor Board doing so much (the film was given an A certificate when the subject was for teenagers), the audience hailed a subject considered taboo until some years back,” he adds, about his social drama starring Akshay Kumar, Pankaj Tripathi and Yami Gautam Dhar.
There were many odds against OMG2 apart from the A certificate: a clash with the mighty Gadar 2, which broke several box-office records. “Akshay ji was confident about our film. I spoke to him twice after the film released, and he spoke his heart out at the success party. Exhibitors were telling him if we had not got an A certificate, the film would have earned double. But Akshay ji said, ‘Mujhe paison ki parvaah nahin, film janta tak pahaunchi chahiye. I am accepting the fact that certificate se nuksaan hua. Par ye bhi hua ke family audience Gadar 2 mein jaa paayi’. OMG2 running in theatres despite that is something which cannot be measured by money,” says Rai.
While OMG2 got attention from the masses due to the presence of several popular faces, the other project he was involved in this year, Dear Jassi, which revolves around honour killing, didn’t receive the same adoration back home. Rai, who until now has always written and directed his films, turned a scriptwriter for another director for the first time. The film has been receiving rave reviews internationally. “The film’s director turned out to be Tarsem Singh Dhandwar, who has directed Hollywood films such as Immortals (2011) and Mirror Mirror (2012). He is such a gem of a person, he didn’t even change one comma of what I wrote,” Rai shares.