High Court clears 'Dasavatharam'

The Madras High Court on May 29 dismissed two petitions against "Dasavatharam" in which Kamal Haasan plays ten roles. The petitioners had contended that the film contained scenes which would offend the religious sentiments of Hindus, especially Vaishnavaites.

A division bench comprising Justice K. Venkataraman and M. Sathyanarayanan, in their order, observed: "We are constrained to come to the conclusion that the apprehension of the petitioners at this stage before they could view the film could only be a surmise and without proof that there are certain scenes which will affect the Hindus, more particularly the Vaishnavaites."

The bench said the freedom of expression guaranteed under

Article 19 (1) of the Constitution could not be curtailed on mere assumptions of the petitioners. There were no intellectual property rights involved in the use of the title "Dasavatharam". "The persons who view the film are not so illiterate as to take a view that it is 10 'avatars' (reincarnations) of Lord Vishnu. We are confident that the people at large will know that the hero of the film, Kamal Haasan, is acting in 10 different roles and that is why the film is named Dasavatharam," the bench said.

With the High Court dismissing the petitions, the film is all set to be released as planned.

Talking to mediapersons after the court verdict, producer Oscar Ravichandran said, "I have immense faith in God and I was confident of a verdict in my favour. My film does not insult any religion. That is why it was given a clean 'U' certificate by the censor board."

Ravinchandran will be releasing the film himself worldwide with 1,000 prints. The budget of the film is estimated to be around Rs 60 crores.

US President George W Bush is one of the ten characters that Kamal Haasan portrays in the film. Ravichandran has sent a copy each of the film with English sub-titles to Mr. Bush and Hollywood action hero Jackie Chan, who attended the audio release function in Chennai. The film's profile and the trailer have been sent to the Louisiana Governor, (who belongs to India), who will liaise with the White House to screen the film for the President.

According to reports, special screening of the film for Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and former Chief Minister Jayalalitha has been arranged.

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Dasavatharam