'Vishwaroopam' taken off theatres across Karnataka following police advisory

Bangalore: Kamal Haasan's controversial film ;Vishwaroopam ' was on Saturday taken off theatres across Karnataka following a police advisory. Meanwhile, the Madras High Court is reviewing the movie on Sunday after it stayed the film's release. A judge of the High Court is watching the film and his verdict will be delivered on Monday. The movie's Hindi version, titled 'Vishwaroop', is set to hit the screens on February 1.

Meanwhile, Actor Ajith issued a statement saying that Indian democracy and secularism have been misunderstood and misconstrued for vote bank politics. Haasan has held a special screening of the film for the Muslim outfit leaders but failed to win their approval.

Calling the protest as 'cultural terrorism, he denied that any community had been denigrated in the film reportedly made with a budget of Rs 100 crore in Tamil, Telugu and Hindi. Barring Tamil Nadu, the film hit theatres elsewhere on Friday and is now being screened after initial hiccups in Karnataka and Kerala.

$\'Vishwaroopam\' taken off theatres across K\'taka$

Meanwhile, the Madras High Court is reviewing the movie on Sunday after it stayed the film\'s release.

The film ran into trouble earlier after the tech-savvy Haasan decided to premier it on Direct-to-Home platform ahead of its theatre release. Meanwhile, PMK founder leader S Ramadoss on Sunday flayed the ban on the movie despite Censor Board's clearance and said it was against freedom of expression. "The state government has been indulging in acts against the freedom of expression. If there is a law and order situation, it is the responsibility of the government to handle it. It is not appropriate to ban a movie," Ramadoss said in a statement, demanding withdrawal fo the ban.

Veteran Tamil film director Bharatiraja said the ban did not affect only Haasan but the entire artiste community. Praising Haasan as a 'socially responsible' person, he said, "we do not know where to seek justice when a movie has been banned despite a Censor Board certificate".

With Additional Inputs from PTI