'Vishwaroopam' row ends

 After nearly 10 days of high drama, marked by protests, mediation and negotiations, actor-director Kamal Haasan's trilingual film "Vishwaroopam" is finally set for release in theatres across Tamil Nadu. The actor agreed to seven demands of Muslim leaders, mostly muting of the audio of portions objected to by them, thus bringing the curtains down on an episode in the history of the Tamil film industry, marred by allegations of infringement of freedom of expression and hurting of communal sentiments.

"I would like to thank the chief minister and the home secretary for facilitating the talks," said Kamal Haasan, who arrived from Mumbai this morning after his film's Friday release in theatres in the north. "We discussed many scenes with our Muslim brothers and finally both parties agreed to delete some sound clips from the film," said Kamal, adding, "We will withdraw our writ petition (in the Madras high court) and hope that the court will lift the ban soon. The release date of the movie will be announced very shortly." He said the altered film would be sent to the Censor Board of Film Certification for approval.