Bollywood x Anime crossover: Is the 15 Year Lie in Oshi no Ko reminiscent of Om Shanti Om?

This year has been quite a rocky one for the fans of anime, with a decent number of setbacks and triumphs. Oshi no Ko easily qualifies as the latter. With a mind-blowing debut episode, the anime took the anime world by storm. At this point in the manga, the story has evolved into a full-fledged revenge drama. Oshi no Ko has adorned a basic revenge story with compelling characters, thrilling revelations, and well-done drama. 

But what if we tell you Bollywood did it way before Oshi no Ko? In 2007, Bollywood’s Om Shanti Om told one of the most iconic revenge stories of all time (if the climax song has started playing in your head, you’re an og). The striking resemblance between Oshi no Ko and Om Shanti Om has impelled us to draw a comparison between the two. And that is exactly what we’ll be doing today! This article contains Oshi No Ko manga spoilers. 

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An introduction to Bollywood’s Om Shanti Om

 

Before we start with exploring the similarities, here’s a synopsis of the movie. Om Prakash Makhija is a supporting actor and is in love with leading actress Shanti Priya. His love ends in the most tragic way possible with both of them dying. Om gets reincarnated as the son of a famous actor and becomes the most sought actor himself. His memories from the past life return and he sets out on a path of revenge.

Now generously sprinkle emotions, drama, romance, and thrill in there and you got Om Shanti Om. A summary can never justify the experience that the movie is, so you might wanna check out that peak fiction. Moving on, we trace our way back to Oshi no Ko. 

Bollywood x Anime crossover: Similarities between Oshi no Ko and Om Shanti Om

Some themes that are common in both movies are the entertainment industry, reincarnation, revenge, and a famous idol/actress at the center of it all. 

• Starting with Aqua, he’s similar to Om. Aqua was a fan of Ai in his previous life. He spent his time doting on her. He got an opportunity to interact with her as her obstetrician. Similarly, in his previous life, Om gets opportunities to interact with Shanti and grow closer to her. 
• The characters get roped into the lives of the famous idol/actress, learn their dark secret, and get killed by the murderer who goes on to kill their beloved later on. 
• They get reincarnated and in this new life, they are obsessed with the idea of revenge. Their obsession stems from the love and affection they felt for the female leads, Ai and Shanti respectively, who were both killed by their lovers, Hikaru and Mukesh. 

And what’s a better way to seek revenge than making an entire film? This plotline can easily be correlated to the setting, the entertainment industry. While Om’s choice to make Om Shanti Om was more emotion-driven, Aqua didn’t have any other choice. 

When Hikaru killed Ai, he was a minor. He cannot be legally tested in court or held liable for his crime. Therefore Aqua has come up with a way to destroy and kill Hikaru by making a film which was Ai’s dream. This film is titled ’15-year-old Lie’.

Where are we headed with the ’15 Year Lie’?

In Om Shanti Om, Om decides that he’ll replay his entire life including Shanti and Mukesh’s (Shanti’s lover and killer) love affair to shed light upon what Mukesh did to Shanti. He plans to evoke Mukesh’s guilty conscience with that. 

On the other hand, we don’t know Aqua’s entire plan in Oshi no Ko. Although we do know that he plans to kill Hikaru Kamiki through the movie 15 Year Lie. Now we’ll do some mental gymnastics to dissect how his plan might proceed in the same way as Om Shanti Om. 

• As smart as he is, he’s going to face his father. Even without any concrete knowledge about Kamiki’s character, we know that he’s quite clever. Given the way the story has progressed so far, it’s hard to expect Aqua’s plan to go smoothly. 
• His plan might not work out as he has planned. This happened to Om as well. The final piece in his revenge puzzle turned out to be Shanti’s ghost. 
• The chances of having Ai return as a ghost are quite low but not zero. Even if she doesn’t return as a ghost, she might play a role in the end which leads the entire revenge plotline to its conclusion.

There are two ways in which it could happen. Either there’s a secret in the DVD she left behind or Ruby. As we already know Director Gotanda is going out of his way to make Ruby feel the way Ai did. With that, she’s better able to understand her mother. Even if we won’t have Ai, we’ll still have Ruby who not only looks like Ai but also has lived her reality throughout the filming process. 

In this way, while Aqua has made everything possible with the 15-Year Lie, things come to an end at Ai’s hands, as they should. 

Conclusion

With all of that, a comparison we didn’t know we could have, has come to life. Who knew we just needed an Om Shanti Om to lead us to Oshi no Ko’s end? But will the 15-year-old Lie be able to surpass the perfect climax of Om Shanti Om? Let’s hold that thought for now, as the fans of the movie would march out at the mere possibility of that happening (BRB marching out this instant).