After a day-long court room drama that ended late at night, the Madras high court lifted the ban imposed on Kamal Haasan’s film Vishwaroopam, paving the way for its release in Tamil Nadu.


In an interim order, Justice K Venkatraman vacated the prohibitory orders issued by district collectors on the film, which had effectively stopped its release in the state.

The state government, represented by attorney general A Navneethakrishnan, indicated that it would challenge the verdict.

The government had also questioned the 'UA' certificate issued to the film. Navaneethakrishnan said the "UA" certificate was not issued by the censor board, but by an examining committee.

Haasan has been facing a series of problems since he got ready to release the multi-lingual thriller set in Afghanistan and the US. The subject of the movie is terrorism. Several Muslim organisations had sought a ban on the movie, which, they said, portrayed the community in a negative light.

The movie, meanwhile, was released in Karnataka after the state police gave an assurance of providing adequate security.