No Om Raut for Ajay Devgn

“Ajay (Devgn) ne Tanhaji se Om (Raut) ko nikaal diya (Ajay has fired Om from Tanhaji),” screamed the gossip from the trade.

This was surprising because Om Raut is the director of Devgn’s film Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior which releases next Friday. Well, before everyone jumped the gun, we realised that the debutant director and the son of popular journalist Bharat Kumar Raut was very well ensconced in his chair. What was removed was the word ‘Om’ which was seen prominently earlier in the Maratha flag in Tanhaji.

“Fearing backlash, Ajay Devgn played it very safe after some historians pointed out an error, as it would tantamount to distortion of history. The word Om was not present on the flag in that era. Ajay was told that the word should not be in the flag, as not only would it amount to a historical inaccuracy but could also lead to a backlash, given the present state of the country and how the social media too is functioning,” says a trade source.

Devgn, who has faced controversy earlier for Son of Sardaar, felt that discretion was the better part of valour and asked for the required changes to be made. “Yes, we removed Om because it was a technical error from our part. We realised that later and removed it because the flag had no symbols on it,” says Ajay.