VISHWAROOPAM will release on the 25th of January, 2013 in not less than 500 screens across the state of Tamil Nadu.

Actor Kamal Haasan's Vishwaroopam will finally hit the theatres on January 25. The movie will be released in atleast 500 theatres across Tamil Nadu, said the actor.

The DTH launch date for the movie has not been decided yet. Kamal Haasan said, "Exhibitors have understood my vision of new revenue through DTH."

Vishwaroopam was originally scheduled to be first released on DTH on January 10, a day before it was to hit theatres. The move was met with protest from theatre owners who threatened to boycott Mr Haasan's films.

Under pressure from theatre owners who refused to screen the movie citing revenue loss, Mr Haasan postponed the release of the hotly-anticipated film saying, "I have postponed for my convenience and in the interest of the industry. I will announce the date of release and the film as many suggested may be on DTH on the same day of theatrical release too". He also added "DTH operators need more time to market the film and I will not fail my DTH partners".

By exploiting the DTH platform, Mr Haasan could have made at least 150 crores. "No one can stop technological and scientific development. I'm hurt the industry is not looking ahead," he said, at a press conference in Chennai.

A few days ago Mr Haasan had sought police action following threats from a few groups to sabotage his DTH plans. Without naming anyone Mr Kamal had said "I'm sending legal notice for 13 people on this". Earlier, Salil Kapoor, COO, of Dish TV told IANS, "We have a communication (from Rajkamal Films) about the postponement of movie release on DTH platform and in theatres."

"In line with the postponement of the release date of the movie Vishwaroopam (Tamil & Telugu)/Vishwaroop (Hindi)' across theatres and on the DTH platform by Rajkamal Films, we have stopped taking bookings for the movie premiere that was scheduled for Jan 10, 2013 at 9.30 p.m. on Airtel DTH," Shashi Arora, CEO-DTH/Media, Bharti Airtel was quoted as saying in a statement issued by the company.

Asked about the money paid by the subscribers to watch the movie on January 10, Mr Kapoor said: "We will go by what our customer want us to do. If they want a refund, we will refund the money." Both Airtel and Dish TV are silent on the number of bookings they received for the movie. -With IANS inputs