This time Manoj Kumar is determined to see his lawsuit against the makers of Om Shanti Om to its logical closure. Says Manoj Kumar, “Yes, I’ve filed civil and criminal cases against them. There’s also a contempt of court case since they did not remove the objectionable scenes even after the earlier court directive. It’s a tough fight ahead. But I’ll see it to its completion. I’ve faith in God.” Manoj Kumar says that no one from the core group of the <em>Om Shanti Om</em> (OSO) team has tried to get in touch with him after the case went into court.

The 5th edition of Nashik International Film Festival (NIFF) yesterday presented the Lifetime Achievement Award 2012 to veteran filmmaker, actor Manoj Kumar. Kumar was presented with the award by producer, director Kiran Shantaram. Manoj Kumar, known for his superhit films like <em>Upkar, Purab aur Paschim, Shor</em> and <em>Kranti</em> received the award consisting of Rs one lakh in cash, a memento and a citation. Accepting the award, Kumar expressed concern over the degrading quality of Hindi cinema in recent times.

<strong>Manoj Saab, you appear to be very upset about the spoof on you in Farah Khan’s Om Shanti Om, as it has now gone to Japan?</strong>

Yesterday (18 November 2012) Mumbai gave a tearful farewell to Shiv Sena Supremo, Balashaeb Thackeray among which were scores of Bollywood personalities prominent among them Amitabh Bachchan, Nana Patekar, Riteish Deshmukh and Mahesh Manjrekar. One of them was noted actor, filmmaker Manoj Kumar. Condoling Thackeray’s death, Kumar recalled some moments of togetherness with him. Both have been friends since 1967. "Our first meeting was at a felicitation function organised by the IMPPA in 1967 at the Taj Hotel,” informed Kumar.

75-year old actor-filmmaker Manoj Kumar, who recently celebrated his 75th birthday, has been approached by French-Afghan writer Atiq for a contemporary take on the 1961 film Kabuliwala, the big screen adaptation of Rabindranath Tagore’s acclaimed short story by the same name. “Mr Rahimi wants me to act in the movie which will have the same script but will be set in the Afghanistan of today,” the veteran observes.