Vishwaroopam: How Kamal Haasan solved row in Tamil Nadu

Chennai, Feb 4: Putting an end to the week-long controversy over his movie

,

seems to have finally pleased the people in

who were upset with the movie. Taking another move to bring truce between him and the state government, Haasan on Monday, Feb 4 withdrew pleas in Madras High Court.

Haasan had filed the petition challenging the ban on the movie which was imposed by the state government. 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.

After consulting his technical team on the cuts and informing the Censor Board, Haasan announced that the movie will be released on Thursday, Feb 7. Earlier the movie was scheduled to be published in Tamil Nadu on Jan 25. However, it has been delayed following protests held by different groups.

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 logjam 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.

OneIndia News
(With PTI inputs)