Suspense over the release of actor- filmmaker Kamal Haasan’s mega budget Vishwaroopam today continued as the Madras high court deferred till tomorrow its order on his plea questioning the Tamil Nadu government’s ban on screening the controversial film, opposed by Muslim groups.
As the court met this morning to decide on the ban, Haasan’s counsel filed petitions challenging prohibitory orders imposed by district collectors’ under Section 144 of CrPC across the state and sought hearing on it along with the main case.
Deferring the matter till tomorrow, justice K.Venkataraman, who had watched the movie on Saturday, suggested that the petitioner “explore all possibilities” to find an “amicable” solution to the issue with the government.
The judge suggested to the petitioner to “keep in mind, the law and order situation in the country.. Unity of the nation..Because of this there should not be any disharmony among the communities.. That is the primary consideration.”
Talking to reporters outside the court, petitioner’s counsel P.S. Raman said, “We challenged the district collectors’ orders and sought to be heard along with the main petition.”
On the court’s advice for an amicable situation, Raman said, “The court only made an observation that since Kamal Haasan has returned to town, he can try to find a compromise. That is not a court order. You shall not consider it a court order.”
“We have got some 7-8 orders (district collectors’), we are challenging only them now. The rest we can challenge only after we receive it.. We are going to do separately for Puducherry,” he said.
To another query on reports of release of pirated DVDs of the movie, he said, “We have not made any submissions on that in the court. Only you (media) should say none should get pirated DVDs,” he said.