A scene from Farah Khan’s 2007 blockbuster Om Shanti Om, starring Shah Rukh Khan and marking the Bollywood debut of Deepika Padukone, had ruffled the feathers of the late actor Manoj Kumar, leading to an apology by Shah Rukh and a lawsuit years later.

The said scene featured Shah Rukh’s character, Om Prakash Makhija, entering a movie premiere by stealing the veteran actor’s facepalm gesture. The police failed to recognise him due to this move in the film, but Kumar noticed the alleged caricature.

“Manoj Kumar has been offended by a certain sequence in the film, and he asked me whether any legal action was possible,” Kumar’s lawyer Mukesh Vashi said in a statement in 2007.

“Indian audiences had made Manoj Kumar into an icon ... That icon has been wounded, made fun of..... A moral action is more important than a legal action,” he added.

Manoj Kumar asked the makers of Om Shanti Om to remove the scene from the film. They agreed to his demand. Shah Rukh even apologised for hurting the veteran actor’s sentiment.

“I was completely wrong... If he is hurt, I apologise. I called him in the afternoon, and the first thing he said to me was ‘it is no big deal, son’,” Shah Rukh told reporters at a press conference back then.

“People do parody... It is a done thing. I should have been over-careful... I should have called him earlier,” he added.

However, the controversy resurfaced in 2013 when Om Shanti Om was re-released in Japan with the scene part of the film. This time, the film veteran sought legal help and filed a lawsuit against Shah Rukh and Eros International.

Kumar sought damages of Rs 100 crore for releasing the film in Japan without removing the objectionable scene.

“He (Shah Rukh Khan) promised Manoj Kumar earlier but repeated this mistake again in Japan... No personal apology was given by SRK... He is not in a mood for any settlement,” Kumar’s lawyer told the media in 2013, as per India Today.

However, after a long legal battle, Manoj Kumar withdrew the case.

Manoj Kumar, known for his roles in patriotic films such as Purab Aur Paschim and Kranti, passed away on Friday at the age of 87. He was admitted to Kokilaben Dhirubhai Ambani Hospital in Mumbai, where he died due to heart-related complications.