No DTH release: Vishwaroopam postponed to Jan 25

In a dramatic turn of events, Kamal Hassan's prestigious Vishwaroopam, which was supposed to release on January 11, has been postponed to January 25. More importantly, Kamal Hassan's DTH release plans have put on hold.

Sources say that PVP Cinemas had joined Kamal Hassan for Vishwaroopam but as the budget of the film exceeded the limit, the actor himself took the responsibility of producing the film. This turned out to be a costly decision as the film ended with the budget of Rs 95 crore. It left Kamal to think of innovative DTH release to generate more revenue and sealed deals with Airtel, Tata, Reliance, Sun, Videocon, Dish DTH, etc., amidst facing stiff opposition from theatres owners and distributors.

Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association (TNTOA) and the Confederation of Theatre Owners and Distributor's Associations decided to boycott the film as Kamal Hassan was firm on his stand. Meanwhile, Kamal Hassan's dream DTH release was not received well and the response was not up to the mark till yesterday (January 7).

On the other end, around 40 theatres promised Kamal Hassan to co-operate for the release of the film and his plans to release in 390 screens appeared far from real. Realising that Vishwaroopam was heading towards a big trouble, a corporate production house intervened to bring peace between the two parties.

As a result, Kamal and theatre-distributors had a lengthy meeting last night and the outcome of the meeting was that Vishwaroopam would not be released on January 11 as main theatres and some good screens have been booked by the makers of Alex Pandian. All these led Hassan to push the release.