The film Viswaroopam is in the news for the past few months. It is a film acted, directed and produced by renowned Indian actor ‘Ulaga Nayagan’(Universal Hero) Kamalhassan. It is not the first time that a film of Kamalhassan has been put into trouble. His earlier films “Virumandi” (Chandiyar – Title first decided) was in trouble stating that the title was defaming a particular community. Many of his films were even criticized for his kissing scenes. The problem with Kamalhassan is his open-minded thinking and darkness. These two qualities though worth full had always been a down-fall for his projects.
The recent issue is about his latest Tri-lingual film “Viswaroopam” directed, produced and acted by him and planned to be released in Tamil, Hindi & Telugu and dubbed version in Malayalam on 25th of January 2013.
Few weeks back the film was screened by Kamalhassan exclusively for Balachandar, Bharathiraja, Ramesh Sippy and Balumahendra the eminent directors of Indian film industry. The directors later appreciated Kamalhassan for his efficiency on bringing the film to an International standard. In the mean time Kamalhassan planned to create a record in the Indian Film Industry by airing the film on “Direct To Home” (DTH) platform as premiere eight hours in advance before the theatrical release of the film. This decision taken by Kamalhassan was objected by the associations and the members of Film Exhibitors Association, Film Distributors Association and by few individuals. Though Kamalhassan had the opportunity to over-come the issue with justice favouringr him, he considered the request of the objectors and dropped his plan of premiering the film on DTH platform in advance before the theatrical release of the film and decided to release the same on DTH platforms few days after the theatrical release.
Kamalhassan made announcement for the theatrical release of his film as 25th January 2013 and also the release date for DTH platforms. In the due course of time, he had to face yet an another case related to his earlier project “Marmayogi” which was pending with only a few days of successful shoot. The case had gone to the court by the producer of that film praying a stay order on release of “Viswaroopam”. At last Kamalhassan survived in this case and was busy on the release of his “Viswaroopam”.
The font of the title of the film “Viswaroopam” looked alike of Arabic and the trailer shot showcased few Muslims in the film with guns and other arms. This created confusion between few Muslim Religious activists and Muslim Religious Political Parties that Muslims had been portrayed as Terrorists in the film. They immediately started protesting against the film and demanded a special show for them. Initially Kamalhassan replied the activists with press-statements mentioning that his film “Viswaroopam” did not depict anything wrong about the Muslim community and he treated his Muslim friends earlier and now as his own brothers and sisters and mentioned that would be even degrade his brothers and sisters and would not do injustice to them.
“Viswaroopam” was declared with “U/A Certificate” by “Central Board of Certification” a body of the Indian Government especially to verify whether the film has contents related to spoil the sovereignty of country, influence terrorism, influence sex violation or influence any illegal activities. Based on the quality of the film, the board issues certificates as “U”, “U/A”, A or PG. “Viswaroopam” was issued an “U/A” certificated by the “Central Board of Certification”.
A special show was screened few days ago for representatives of Muslim Religious activists and Muslim Religious Political Parties. After seeing “Viswaroopam”, the Muslim Religious activists and Muslim Religious Political Parties started protest in full vigor stating that the film depicts Muslims as Terrorists and demanded the Taml Nadu state government to Ban the film in whole of Tamil Nadu without releasing the film. The state government accepted the request of the Muslim organizations and issued a ban on 23rd January 2013 for the film for fifteen days and ordered the production house of the film to make corrections in the film and release after fifteen days. Kamalhassan’s advocated had filed a petition in the Madras High Court on 24th January 2013 challenging the Tamil Nadu Government’s ban and requested a stay on the Ban. Justice Mr.Venkatraman who took over the case issued an order stating that he would view the film on 26th January 2013 and would decide whether the film can be made for public exhibition in Tamil Nadu and the ban on the film would be till 28th January 2013.
“Central Board of Certification” is a body which analyses a film with experienced personnel’s and issues a valid certificate for a film which is legal and permits the film crew to make a public exhibition of the film. But many Political Parties, Religious Parties, Individual activists take advantage of judicial department and play the game against a creator, either he or she being a writer, creator or an actor of a film by pin-pointing with any scenes and stating the scenes would ruin the current or future generation. There are few incidents where few names or words being used in a film had been forced to be removed from the film even after the release of the film. Naming a person in a film does not support any copyright act and activists even indulge in removing the name and rename with a different one.
As the case of the film “Viswaroopam”, “Viswaroopam is like a “Baby in the womb”. A pregnant mother before her delivery undergoes many medical check-up and gets a fitness for her and her child inside her womb. The unborn child “Viswaroopam” has underwent a “U/A” clearance certification by the “Central Board of Film Certification” so called Doctor. “Viswaroopam” about to be born in a day has been made stand still by few Muslim Religious activists and Muslim Religious Political Parties without releasing the same on the specified date 25th January 2013. Later the un-born child would be born in a cloned form a pirated CD’s and DVD’s in the market and that would lead the mother – the producers of the film incur huge loss.
If “Viswaroopam” is a film having the bad remarks made by the Muslim organizations, It is a question mark why “Central Board of Certification” did not analyze or make legal consultations with the concerned religious organizations and legal experts before issuing a valid certificate for the film. The cost of the film would increase every second from the time of the delay in the release of the film. It is neither the government nor anyone else financially going to support for a “Viswaroopam” producer or any other producer.
Let’s wait for the judgment till 28th January 2013 and watch any proper action is being initiated by the “Central Board of Certification”.