9 Jan – Despite the hype for Kamal Hassan's Tamil-Hindi spy thriller "Vishwaroopam", the release of the film on 11 January 2013 has been postponed to 25 January 2013, in order to avoid competing with "Alex Pandian", due to the lack of revenue. According to One India Entertainment, it was reported that during filming, the budget of the film had exceeded its limit (Rs 95 crore), leading the actor-director to fund his feature-length vehicle himself. Kamal Hassan then came up with the idea of releasing the film on DTH platforms to generate more revenue amidst facing stiff opposition from theatres owners and distributors. DTH stands for Direct-To-Home television, and is defined as the reception of satellite programmes with a personal dish in an individual home, doing away with local cable operators. However, as it turned out, the DTH release of "Vishwaroopam" was not well-received. Further, Kamal Hassan's plans to release the film in 390 screens also failed to come to fruition, with only 40 theatres promising him their co-operation since Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association (TNTOA) and the Confederation of Theatre Owners and Distributor's Associations have decided to boycott the film.
After much discussion, it was decided that "Vishwaroopam" will not see release on 11 January 2013 as planned in order to make way for Suraj's action-masala film "Alex Pandian". There have been many cases of delays in regards to Tamil, Hindi, or Tamil-Hindi films in Malaysia, the last being A. R. Murugadoss' action thriller film "Thuppaki" during last year's Diwali holidays. "Vishwaroopam" stars Kamal Haasan, Andrea Jeremiah, Rahul Bose, Jaideep Ahlawat and Pooja Kumar.