MUMBAI: Veteran actor Manoj Kumar recently filed a legal complaint against the producers of ‘Om Shanti Om’ i.e. Shah Rukh Khan and Eros International for re-releasing the hit Bollywood film in Japan with scenes that allegedly defamed the senior star.
Shah Rukh Khan has blamed the distributors of the film for the legal row over ‘Om Shanti Om’. Explained Khan, “I don’t know much about it as I have just come back. Very honestly I had personally apologized to him then. My respect goes to all actors who are older and younger to me. Distributors have made a genuine mistake… old print was sent (to Japan).”
As for the veteran actor’s decision to go legal, SRK commented, “He (Kumar) has done a legal thing. He is welcome to do that. I don’t take it personal.”
Background: Manoj Kumar claims that his body double has been used in the SRK-Deepika Padukone starrer, showing the senior actor in a bad taste.
In 2008, Kumar had filed for a stay on the television release, at a Mumbai Court. He won permanent injunction on the scenes in ‘Om Shanti Om’ that lampooned him. The court ordered the producers and Sony Entertainment Television, to edit the Manoj Kumar look-alike scenes before showing the film on any media—TV, DVD or Internet—without the scene being deleted. However, it looks like the offending scenes were not removed after all in the Japanese ‘Koi Suru Rinne Om Shanti Om’.