MUMBAI: After buckling under pressure from theatre owners, Kamaal Haasan‘s spy thriller Vishwaroopam is all set to premiere on direct-to-home (DTH) platforms on 2 February, almost a week after the theatrical release.
The Hindi version of Vishwaroopam will be released on 1 February across India. The Tamil and Telugu versions of the film will be released on 25 January as announced by the actor earlier.
"While the original DTH premiere was on a Thursday (January 10) and hence inconvenient for most, I am now releasing it on a Saturday at the end of the first week of release (January 25) which will be on February 2," Haasan said in a statement.
The trilingual action film was earlier supposed to premiere on DTH on 10 January a day before the theatrical release on 11 January which met with fierce resistance from a section of theatre owners who saw the move as an attack on their livelihood.
The protest by cinema owners in Tamil Nadu, who had also urged the Tamil Nadu CM J Jayalalithaa to intervene, had Haasan change his mind.
The actor and film-maker had also moved the Competition Commission of India (CCI) against certain theatre associations for restricting the release of his film.
However, Haasan did not reveal the name of DTH operators who will telecast the movie. Haasan‘s production had earlier signed a deal with all the six DTH operators to air the film.
"I will announce the names of my DTH partners who will be involved in this endeavour soon," he said.