TNN
Mumbai, Aug 9: Responding to a petition filed by veteran actor Manoj Kumar, a city civil court ordered actor Shah Rukh Khan and director Farah Khan to ensure that their film, Om Shanti Om , was aired on television only after the deletion of certain scenes to which Manoj Kumar had objected.
Kumar's plea in court said he had taken offence to the manner in which he had been mimicked in the film, especially in a scene where a character, representing him, was shown trying to enter the premiere of a movie; the character was shooed away by guards and "even beaten with a stick", Manoj Kumar had said.
The court ordered that the screening of the movie, slated for Sunday by Sony Entertainment Television , would be allowed only if the objectionable scene was deleted. The order also said all copies and screenings of the movie in future should be done without this scene.
Shah Rukh's lawyer tried to argue that the scene was only a joke and no offence or defamation had been committed by the actor or the movie's director. However, the court did not agree with him.
Manoj Kumar now plans to file a defamation suit on Monday. "We will file a defamation case against the Shah Rukh-owned Red Chillies Productions and its director, Gauri Khan, for not keeping with their promise of deleting the scene before its release. The damages we are demanding is merely Re 1. No contemporary actor can match up with Manoj Kumar's calibre," Manoj Kumar's counsel, Ashok Sarogi, said.
Manoj Kumar's application said he was proud of his public image and reminded that he was also called "Bharat Kumar" because of "services he had rendered in the interests of the nation". The plea said that every actor had his own style of acting and the movie had copied him and ridiculed him.
Manoj Kumar told the court that producer Yash Chopra had apologised and assured him that the offensive portions would be deleted after he had objected to the scenes; Chopra tried to act as a mediator between director Farha Khan and Manoj Kumar when the row erupted.
Manoj Kumar sought a stay on the movie being aired on television, saying that the telecast would harm his reputation. He argued more people watched movies at home on television than they did in theatres and, therefore, wanted the scenes portraying him to be cut.
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