'Vishwaroopam' released in Karnataka

Chennai: Kamal Haasan's controversial spy thriller 'Vishwaroopam' has resumed playing in Karnataka under police security.

The Rs.95 crore film, which released in Karnataka on January 25, was banned from screening after the first show. Theatres were asked to stop screening fearing violence.

Now the film is back in theatres.

"We are showing the film under police security. We have four shows for today. The response has been good. And since police are patrolling, people are walking in fearlessly," an official of Urvashi Cinemas told IANS.

Some other cinemas playing the movie include Innovative Multiplex, Rockline cinemas, Gopalan cinemas, Vision cinemas and Manasa Digital cinemas.

The film has released in close to 40 theatres in the state, including in over 15 screens in Bangalore.

"Police gave us a go-ahead this morning. Most theatres have included an extra show in the evening to attract as many as possible to the cinemas," said H.D Gangaraju, the distributor of the film.

The movie, written, directed and produced by Kamal, has been released with the tag line "All Muslims are not terrorists and the characters depicted in this film are imaginary," said Bharathwaj, one of the movie patrons.

'Vishwaroopam' was originally set to release in Tamil and Telugu on January 25. But a day earlier, the Tamil Nadu government imposed a two-week ban on the film after some Muslims complained that some scenes in the film portrayed the community in a bad light.

Actor-filmmaker Kamal, who also plays the lead in the film, was asked to settle the issue amicably with the Tamil Nadu government on January 28. This was after a judge saw the movie in a private screening on January 26.