The Vishwaroopam conflict remained unresolved as the tripartite talks between the filmmaker, the angry Muslim federation and the facilitator government did not take formal shape in the absence of Kamal Haasan, who is in Mumbai in connection with the release of its Hindi version. He is expected to return Saturday morning, according to his brother Chandrahasan, who is also partner in the production company, Rajkamal Films.
The Muslim federation insisted on Kamal Haasan participating in the talks. “If we must find a solution, only those who can make the decisions must attend the talks. So let Kamal come,” federation spokesman M.H. Jawahirullah, MMK legislator, said.
The federation members, including their coordinator Haneefa and MMK leader Abdul Samad, met home secretary R. Rajagopal at the secretariat in the morning and formally handed over a letter expressing willingness to negotiate with Kamal Haasan, as recommended by the chief minister on Thursday. Mr Charuhasan also arrived at that time along with his auditor Shanmugam hoping to open the talks. City police commissioner S. George was part of the government team. The session lasted over 90 minutes.
Sources said the federation was upset that Kamal had sent brother Charuhasan instead of going himself. Also, it was said that while the Muslim leaders wanted 14 cuts consuming a little over 20 minutes, the producer was willing for eight cuts lasting about nine minutes. “These are just rumours”, insisted Mr Jawahirullah.
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PIL against film in chennai
age CORRESPONDENT
Chennai, Feb. 1
A PIL was filed in the Madras high court to direct the Union and state governments, besides the Central Board of Film Certification, to ban Vishwaroopam in the present form throughout the country unless and until certain scenes that affect the fabric of secularism and religious sentiments of the citizens of the country are deleted from the movie.
According to petitioner, C. Jebakumar George, when he had been to Trivandrum on January 27, he happened to watch Vishwaroopam. He was shocked to find many scenes in the movie to be very violent and derogative of religions and races.