Manoj Kumar continues his demented drive against SRK

Veteran actor Manoj Kumar wants his pound of flesh.

On Tuesday, Kumar filed two more cases, one for defamation and the other for cheating, against actor Shah Rukh Khan, his production house director and wife Gauri Khan and film director Farah Khan for ridiculing him in Om Shanti Om, which released last year.

On August 8, the veteran actor won his first battle when a sessions court imposed a conditional stay on telecast of the film saying it would not be shown on television unless the scene that Kumar had objected to is deleted.

Kumar’s advocate Ashok Sarogi said they have demanded Re 1 as damages in the defamation suit as “the reputation of Kumar is invaluable and priceless”.

In the application, Kumar had stated that he objected to the manner in which he was portrayed in Om Shanti Om. He had contented that a scene in which a character allegedly modeled on him — shown trying to enter a theatre but thrashed and driven away by the security personnel — had undermined his public image.

The defamation suit will come up for hearing before the Dindoshi sessions court on August 18, while the cheating case will be heard on August 22.

Kumar had filed the suit against Shah Rukh-owned Red Chillies Productions and Gauri for not keeping their promise of deleting the scene, despite assurances at the time of its release that the said scene would be deleted.

Kumar’s application had stated that after its release, when he had raised objections, filmmaker Yash Chopra — who was mediating between Farah and Kumar — had tendered an apology on their behalf and assured that the scene would be deleted.

Kumar, in his application, said the telecast of the movie would harm his reputation greatly as more people watched films at home then in cinema halls.

Besides, Kumar had also sought the court’s intervention to remove the ‘offensive’ scenes from the VCDs and DVDs.

Vignesh Iyer, Hindustan Times