Om Shanti Om
File:Omshantiom.jpg Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Farah Khan
Produced by	Gauri Khan
Written by	Farah Khan Mayur Puri Mushtaq Sheikh
Starring	Shahrukh Khan Deepika Padukone Kirron Kher Shreyas Talpade Arjun Rampal Yuvika Chaudhary
Music by	Songs: Vishal-Shekhar Background Score: Sandeep Chowta
Cinematography	V. Manikandan
Editing by	Shirish Kunder
Distributed by	Red Chillies Entertainment
Release date(s)	9 November 2007
Running time	162 mins
Country	India
Language	Hindi
Budget	30 crore (US$5.99 million)[1]
Box office	190 crore (US$37.91 million)[2]

Om Shanti Om is a Bollywood musical film directed and choreographed by Farah Khan. It stars Shahrukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in the lead roles while Arjun Rampal, Shreyas Talpade, and Kirron Kher feature in supporting roles. More than forty-two well-known Bollywood stars appear in the course of the film, including thirty of them (not including the stars of the film) in one song alone. The film is set in the 1970s and 2000s; it pays tribute to, and pokes fun at the, Indian film industry of both these eras.

It is inspired by Rishi Kapoor's 1980 Bollywood film Karz and borrows many elements from it, including the title of the film which is named after one of the songs "Om Shanti Om". Also for a brief moment Rishi Kapoor can be seen dancing to the original song.

The film was released in 2000 prints worldwide making it the largest Indian cinematic release at the time.^[3] Om Shanti Om released on 9 November 2007 to mostly positive reviews from critics and record breaking box office collections. It grossed over 1.49 billion worldwide, thus became the highest-grossing Hindi film of all-time at the time of its release. ^[4][5]

Plot[link]

Om Prakash Makhija (Shahrukh Khan) is a junior artiste in the 1970s Bollywood film industry. He and his friend Pappu (Shreyas Talpade) are trying to succeed as leading actors. Om's mother, Bela Makhija (Kirron Kher), herself a junior artiste, inspires and encourages her son to succeed. He is in love with film actress Shanti Priya (Deepika Padukone). One evening, Om views the premiere of Shanti's film Dreamy Girl, claiming he is actor Manoj Kumar. Later that night, Om becomes drunk and describes his vision of himself as a famous, wealthy film star to Pappu and some local children. During his speech, references are made to the law of attraction, creating an axiom that recurs throughout the story. While shooting of a film wherein Om is acting as a scene-extra, he notices Shanti trapped in the middle of a fire scene where the fire has escaped control. He saves her and they become friends. The following day, He overhears her argument with the film's producer Mukesh Mehra (Arjun Rampal). It is revealed here that Shanti is secretly married to Mukesh and expecting his child.

One night, Om notices Mukesh escorting Shanti to the set of their soon-to-be-made film Om Shanti Om. Inside, Mukesh tells Shanti that he will cancel the film, reveal their marriage to the public, and have a grand wedding on the spectacular set. But then he contradicts himself by blaming her for his loss of the film and its revenue. He ignites a fire and leaves her imprisoned inside it. Om attempts to rescue her, but is prevented by an explosion, and she gets killed. Om is hit by a car owned by Rajesh Kapoor (Javed Sheikh), a well-known actor who is taking his wife (Asawari Joshi), Lovely, to the hospital as she is in labour. Rajesh takes Om to the hospital with them. But Om dies of his injuries. Moments later, a son is born to Lovely and Rajesh, who is named Om, and implied to be Om Prakash's reincarnation.

The film then cuts to Om Kapoor's adulthood. Nicknamed O.K., he is a popular movie star and lives an extravagant, luxurious life. He experiences pyrophobia and it is shown through some scenes that he subconsciously inherits Om Prakash's memories. When making a speech of acceptance for an award, O.K. unexpectedly recalls the drunken speech that Om Prakash had made to Pappu, and delivers the same to the assembly who have awarded him. Pappu, seeing this broadcast on television, is convinced to share Bela's belief that O.K. and Om Prakash are the same man. At a celebration of his award, O.K. is introduced by his father to Mukesh Mehra, who has been producing films in Hollywood for the last twenty five years. Upon seeing him, O.K. becomes aware of all of Om Prakash's memories. He later reunites with Bela and Pappu. O.K. conspires with Pappu and Bela to avenge Shanti's death by terrifying Mukesh into confessing his role therein.

As a disguise and framework for this plan, O.K. convinces Mukesh to recreate Om Shanti Om, altering the plot to fit their designs. It is then shown that the central part of their scheme consists of convincing Mukesh that Shanti's ghost is haunting him, thereby frightening him into revealing his role in Shanti's death. To achieve this, they hold auditions for an actress who resembles Shanti to the extent that seeing her unexpectedly appear and seem to vanish will startle Mukesh. They choose Sandy (also played by Padukone), who looks identical to Shanti. Thereafter the filming begins at a recreation of the same set in which Shanti had died 30 years earlier. Throughout the film shooting, O.K. and his friends arrange incidents to remind Mukesh of his crime, mostly by giving him startling glimpses of Sandy. During the music launch of the film, O.K. taunts Mukesh by revealing, through song, the extent to which he knows the story of Shanti's death. However, Mukesh pursues Sandy and sees that she bleeding from a scratch, convincing him that she is not a ghost.

After the celebration, O.K. and Mukesh confront each other with their knowledge of each other's actions. They are interrupted when a figure whom they think to be Sandy appears on the nearby stairwell. She reveals why Shanti's body was never found: Mukesh had returned after the fire was gone and buried her alive,Shanti was still breathing, under the grand chandelier. Mukesh draws a pistol, O.K. kicks it away, and in their fight they knock over some candles, starting a fire. O.K. recovers the pistol; Shanti tells him that Mukesh is destined to die but not by O.K.'s hand. A chandelier, having come loose during the celebration, then falls onto Mukesh, killing him. When Pappu and Sandy appear at the doorway, O.K. finally recognizes that the figure who challenged Mukesh is the real Shanti Priya's ghost. This also explains some supernatural incidents that O.K. and his friends had not set up. O.K. raises his hand to wave at the love of his past life; among the flames, Shanti smiles at him, with a tear at her eye. Sandy then goes to Om, apologizing. While Om hugs Sandy he looks at Shanti who goes up the stairs and disappears into the light and is gone forever. The ends credits come up as a film premiere.

Cast[link]

• Shahrukh Khan as Om Prakash Makhija / Om Kapoor
• Deepika Padukone as Shanti Priya / Sandy
• Arjun Rampal as Mukesh Mehra "Mike"
• Shreyas Talpade as Pappu Master
• Kirron Kher as Bela Makhija
• Javed Sheikh as Rajesh Kapoor
• Asawari Joshi as Lovely Kapoor
• Yuvika Chaudhary as Dolly
• Bindu Desai as Kamini
• Satish Shah as Film Director
• Shawar Ali as Shawar

Special appearances during the song "Deewangi Deewangi" (in order of appearance)

Other Cameo appearances throughout the film (in alphabetical order)

Production[link]

The film is based on reincarnation. Shooting of the film began in January 2007 at various locations in India. The film was released on 9 November 2007.

Om Shanti Om created a record of sorts by going in for an unheard of 2000 prints (worldwide) release. This was the highest number of prints (including digital) for any Indian movie at the time of its release.^[3] Om Shanti Om set an other record for registered pre-advanced booking of 18,000 tickets in a chain of theaters in national capital Delhi a couple of days before the advance booking was to start.^[6]

Red Chillies Entertainment had reportedly sold the world rights for the film to Eros International for an amount between Rs.720-750 million.^[7][8] Baba Films, production and distribution company, had offered a record Rs.110 million for the rights to the Mumbai Circuit, easily surpassing the highest amount ever paid for the territory of Rs.85 million for Jaan-E-Mann.^[7]

A book, titled The Making of Om Shanti Om and written by Mushtaq Sheikh, has been released after the release of the film. The book gives an insight about the production and happenings behind the camera of the film.^[9][10]

Home Video Release[link]

Om Shanti Om was released on a two disc DVD mastered from High Definition in Widescreen format on February 2008 . The second disc included a trivia game, bloopers, premiers, deleted scenes, interviews, trailers and teasers and the making of the film and songs. The DVD also included a signed poster of Shahrukh Khan and a 16-page booklet. The film was also released in Blu-Ray. Bollywood Hungama gave it 4 out of 5 stars.

Soundtrack[link]