Vishwaroopam gets released in Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu’s date with Kamal Haasan’s film ‘Vishwaroopam’ has finally arrived. Ending the 10-day-long wait, Kamal Haasan’s Rs 95 crore film finally hit the screens on Thursday in Tamil Nadu.
The Madras High Court had on Monday closed all petitions filed by the actor against the prohibitory orders invoked by the state administration to prevent its screening. Kamal Haasan on Monday withdrew his petition before the Madras High Court challenging the ban, a move that could see the early release of his mega-budget movie.
Justice S Rajeswaran, before whom the matter came up, allowed the actor and government to withdraw pleas after they expressed their desire to do so following a compromise between Haasan and Muslim outfits, which had opposed it claiming some scenes offended their sentiments.
Clearing the way for screening the movie, the ban on it was lifted by the government on Sunday, ending the week long standoff between Haasan and the Muslim outfits. District Collectors revoked prohibitory orders under which the release was banned on January 23 after the outfits came out strongly against the Rs 100 crore movie.
While a single judge had allowed release, a division bench had upheld the ban and reverted the issue to the former. Faced with opposition from Muslim outfits, government had imposed the ban citing threat of violence with Chief Minister Jayalalithaa defending the action.
A government brokered meeting between Haasan and Muslim groups broke the deadlock on Saturday, with the actor agreeing to some cuts, including muting some dialogues. The ban had stirred a hornet’s nest and the 58-year-old actor had spoken of the trauma of having pledged his house to make the movie and even threatened to go on self-imposed exile to a secular place outside Tamil Nadu or overseas.
The film, made in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi, was originally slated for release on January 11. Vishwaroopam had also faced trouble first from theatre owners who opposed the tech-savvy actor’s move to release the spy thriller on a DTH platform, forcing him to indefinitely put it on hold.