Soon Shanti is murdered by an evil filmmaker, and eyewitness Om dies in an accident. The plot was smartly tweaked: a junior artiste Om (essayed by Shah Rukh Khan) is in love with a superstar, Shanti (Deepika Padukone). Om Shanti Om thus became the title of Farah Khan’s ingenious Karz-inspired film in 2007. Om shanti om, of course, led the charts, and all these five hits later became titles for newer films, along with Aashiq Banaya Aapne, the last three words of Dard-e-dil’s ‘ mukhda’. Dard-e-dil became Mohammed Rafi’s last chartbuster in his lifetime, Ek hasina thi and Paisa yeh paisa became major hits, and Main solah baras ki was also popular. The score won a Gold Disc and a prestigious Best Music award. Of course, the success story of the music was spectacular from the beginning. Released in 1980, the film did average business, but soon attained its current cult status. The casting-of Raj Kiran as Rishi in his previous birth and Simi Garewal as the scheming murderess as well as Tina Munim, Pran, Premnath and Durga Khote- were pitch-perfect. Om shanti Om, India’s first song in 4-track Stereophonic Sound, was filmed on the giant gramophone record set created at RK Studios. The visionary Ghai shot in Cinemascope (a rarity then) and put in a lot of effort in his songs, making a trip to London to watch live pop shows and watch videocassettes that had then not come to India. Ghai thus went against type as pop was considered the domain of R.D. Two choices were obvious: the only young musical hero then was Rishi Kapoor, and the only composers who had both the range and the commercial standing were Laxmikant-Pyarelal. Ghai, then two action film hits old as a director, launched his now-famous banner of Mukta Arts (then called Mukta Films) in 1978 to be able to make this film with complete creative freedom, and turned the hero into a pop singer to ensure what soon became his forte-great music. Subhash Ghai, who decided to adapt the idea to the Indian screen as a musical thriller, made a very important change-the killer had to be punished, with a happy ending for the hero.
He plans a strategy to expose her-and she murders him as well! ‘Om Shanti Om’ and ‘Karz’ movie poster Soon, he is able to trace his past identity and find the woman who killed him. It was the story of a man troubled by inexplicable nightmares, who discovers that he had been victim of a brutal murder in his past birth. In 1976, a Hollywood film, The Reincarnation Of Peter Proud, did fair business in India.