Manoj Kumar, an award winning actor of yesteryear was very angry and hurt after seeing how he was portrayed in the film Om Shanti Om. He was so upset in fact that he was considering taking the film’s producers to court. The scene that upset the veteran actor was one in which SRK impersonates Kumar to get into a screening and when the “real” Manoj Kumar comes to the theater he is not recognized by the police and he is knocked around by them and chased away.
Kumar said, “I am hurt. Shah Rukh Khan has injured my soul. It’s a conspiracy to humiliate and ridicule me. This is not filmmaking…My devotion to filmdom for the last 50 years has been insulted.”
When Shah Rukh Khan heard that Manoj was so upset he immediately called him to apologize. “I told him that I am extremely sorry for hurting your sentiments. There was no intention to hurt anyone and as a producer of my film, Om Shanti Om, I overlooked this issue. I also apologised on behalf of my director, Farah Khan,” said SRK.
Farah Khan has also called the actor to apologize and offered to cut out the scenes but Kumar said there was no need.
The two of them held a press conference and Shah Rukh said, “Both of us have apologised to him and and he was very gracious about it, he said he didn’t need an apology from us as we were like his children.”
“We apologise again, because he has come on TV and sounded disturbed about it. So I am saying on TV, I apologise. I would like to add that nobody’s meant to be hurt in this film, most of the people who are part of the film knew what they were doing and enjoyed it even after seeing the film. So if somebody has seen it and not told us yet, I apologise to them, it is not meant to be degrading or demeaning – we are making fun of ourselves, we are the fraternity,” SRK added.
