Kamal's 'Dasaavatharam' caught in legal wrangle for its release

Chennai, May 6 (UNI) The under-production Kamal Hassan-starrer 'Dasaavatharam', facing flak from Hindu outfits for its ''offending'' scenes, was caught in a legal wrangle today, with a Hindu Society filing a writ petition in the Madras High Court, seeking to restrain the release of the film without censoring such scenes.

A Division Bench, comprising Justices G Rajasuria and M Sathyanarayanan, issued notice to the Film Censor Board, Oscar Films (P) Ltd and film direcor K S Ravikumar, returnable by May 13, on a petition filed by the International Sri Vaishnava Dharma Samarakshanaa Society.

The petitioner submitted that a TV channel had telecast the film trailer and some of the scenes illustrating the clash between Saivites and Vaishnavites were offensive, hurt the sentiments of Hindus and contrary to history.

The petitioner contended that though there may not be any intellectual property barring the use of the sacred name 'Dasaavatharam', it offended religious faith of Hindus, particularly Vaishnavites, as it referred to the ten incarnations of Lord Vishnu.

The petitioner prayed for a direction to the Censor Board to cut the offending scenes in the film while issuing its certificate and restrain the producer, director and their authorised agents, distributors and colour lab from handing out the prints for release without removing the offending scenes, pending disposal of the petition.

The bench posted the matter to May 13 for hearing.

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