31 Jan – After a long wait, Kamal Haasan's Tamil spy thriller "Vishwaroopam" finally has its ban lifted by the Madras High Court on Tuesday, only to have the film's ban upheld on Wednesday after the Tamil Nadu government appealed the court's ruling. Earlier, we reported that the Tamil Nadu government banned the film for its alleged derogatory depiction of Muslims. "I have watched the film and it has no scenes that hurt the sentiments of Muslim community," said Justice K. Venkatraman, who also mentioned that the film would be released without any cuts or edits, but a tagline stating "All Muslims are not terrorists and the characters depicted in this film are imaginary" will be included in the credits. However, it seems inconsequential now, and visibly emotional Haasan was quoted saying, "If I can't find it within India, which I will know in another couple of days, I will find hopefully another country which is secular that might take me in." The matter is then settled with Haasan agreeing to cut certain scenes from the film, including words from the Koran.
Screening of the movie in Singapore and Sri Lanka was also delayed, but in Malaysia, few managed to catch the film when it was released as scheduled on 24 January 2013, before it was pulled out on Friday noon onwards after a directive from the Ministry of Home Affairs. According to a representative from Lotus Five Star (LFS), "Vishwaroopam" is still awaiting the green light from the Malaysian ministry in an ongoing meeting while Golden Theatre Singapore is said to be releasing the film today from 6:30PM onwards. Stay tuned for more updates!