Keeping its promise, the Tamil Nadu government on Sunday lifted the ban imposed on the film Vishwaroopam that had got embroiled in controversy. District collectors were asked to revoke the ban imposed on the film under section 144 of CrPC following an amicable settlement being reached between Kamal Haasan and Muslim organisations on Saturday.
“We received an official communication from the state headquarters Sunday morning asking us to relax the prohibitory orders to stop screening of Kamal Haasan’s movie Vishwaroopam,” a collector from a Southern district told this newspaper over phone Sunday.
The state government had on January 23 instructed all district collectors to impose prohibitory orders to ban the movie under section 144 of CrPc after a few Muslim outfits sought a ban on it saying that a few scenes were “derogatory” and would hurt their religious sentiments.
“It was believed that the ban order would be in effect until actor-producer Kamal Haasan carried out changes to the content as agreed upon at a tripartite meeting facilitated by the state government, but collectors were instructed to lift the ban within a day of agreement being reached,” another collector revealed.
However, fans and film buffs would have to wait at least until the weekend to watch the movie as Mr Haasan has to delete some portions and also get censor board’s clearance.
Meanwhile, the producers of Vishwaroopam are hopeful that the hype created by the protests would pull more crowds and keep the box office humming.