Actor Kamal Haasan on Thursday virtually ruled out moving the Supreme Court against the ban on Vishwaroopamfor now, saying he was thankful to Tamil Nadu chief minister J. Jayalalithaa’s offer to break the impasse over the film.

“I thank the chief minister. I am grateful to her. She has been kind enough to offer her help... now that she has helped us why should we go (to the Supreme Court),” he told a press conference in Mumbai after the premiere of the Hindi version of the film releasing on Friday .

The 58-year-old actor was asked whether he would move the apex court against the Madras High Court order, staying release of the film that was banned by the state government in wake of objections raised by some Muslim outfits.

Breaking her silence a week after the ban exploded into a national controversy, Jayalalithaa said in Chennai this morning that she has no “personal grudge” against Haasan or “personal interest” in the ban. She offered to facilitate an amicable settlement if Haasan and Muslim groups come together.

She said the government had made a request to Haasan to show the movie to a few representatives of the Muslim organisations. “Had he done it, the problem would have been avoided. But he avoided showing the movie.”

Jayalalithaa also justified the ban on Vishwaroopam.

Jayalalithaa cited the shortage of police to provide security at theatres as the reason for banning Vishwaroopam. She said the ban was imposed based on intelligence inputs about likely violence.
Haasan earlier said he doesn’t want to be drawn into talk of a political aspect to the ban on the spy thriller made at a budget of nearly Rs100 crore. He was replying to a query on Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party chief M. Karunanidhi’s statement suggesting an angle.

“I am still hurt, but calm,” said Haasan, after having declared Wednesday that he would exile himself from Tamil Nadu over its intolerance toward freedom of expression.

Justice K. Venkataraman had issued an interim stay on the Tamil Nadu government’s order Tuesday midnight. But that in turn got stayed on Wednesday morning by a division bench of the Madras high court, which delayed the release of the film until 6 February. The Wednesday order was in response to a petition filed by the state government and some Muslim organisations against Tuesday night’s order.a