
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.