Latest Kamal Hassan production ‘Vishwaroopam’ is reported to have opened to ‘muted response’ to releasing centres in Kerala.

Lack of any indoor or outdoor publicity effort effectively capped feedback from the potential audience, a spokesperson of the Kerala Cine Exhibitors Association told Business Line from Kochi.

However, screening of the movie has been obstructed in releasing centres in Ettumanoor in Kottayam district and in Palakkad in Kerala. This came about after Muslim organisations laid seige to the respective theatres protesting 'objectionable content' in the latest Kamal Haasan production.

LESS TIME

Exhibitors got ‘hardly any time’ to mount any serious effort announcing the release since the all-clear or the release in the State came towards late yesterday evening. The spokesperson said that even this did not prevent a few enterprising exhibitors from sending out foot soldiers as late as in the midnight to ‘go plaster’ the city announcing the release.

But this proved ‘too little, too late,’ she said, as was evident from the response to the release. But the exhibitor association expected the audience to lap it up as enough publicity gets generated during next few days.

KSFDC RELEASE

The spokesperson said that the film was released in at least 52 ‘B’ class theatres across the State on Friday. It was also released in Kairali/Chithranjali screening facilities operated by the Kerala State Film Development Corporation in major district centres.

Multiplexes and some theatres run by the Kerala Film Exhibitor’s Federation, which had declined to exhibit the movie following Haasan’s decision to premier it in DTH format, have also screened it, the spokesperson said.

Haasan’s home production Rajkamal Films International was releasing the movie directly in Kerala.

>(vinson.kurian@thehindu.co.in)

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