Kamal Haasan once again finds himself fighting the fringe for his upcoming Tamil comedy drama film, Uttama Villain (Tamil for Virtous Villain) directed by Ramesh Aravind and produced by N Linguasamy jointly with Kamal Haasan.
The film has been marred by controversy as the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a prominent political party has strongly demanded to ban it, owing to its anti-Hindu subtext. The members of VHP allege that the lyrics of a song reportedly portray Hindu Gods in poor light.
The film, scheduled to hit the screens soon, will affect the religious sentiments of Hindu people, the outfit has claimed.
Haasan planned to release the film in May, while the demand for banning is posing to be a huge problem for the filmmaker. VHP allege that the lyrics of a song in the film had belittled a conversation between Prahalad and Hiranyakaship.
Members of VHP's Chennai unit approached the office of the commissioner of the police recently, to demand a complete banning. The first look of Uttama Villain churned out a controversy when its poster was compared to the work of a French photographer.
Haasan's mentor K Balachander, who passed away in December, plays a cameo in the film, while the other casts include Jayaram, Andrea Jeremiah, Pooja Kumar, Nassar, Parvathi, Parvathy Nair and Urvashi.
To be surrounded by controversy is nothing new for Haasan, as most of films in the past have faced the ire of people from various sections of the society.
His last release Vishwaroopam, which was based on terrorism, faced a controversy and people from Muslim demanded a to ban it, as it supposedly hurt their religious sentiments and showed Muslims in poor light.
Despite getting a clearance from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the political outfit had stressed upon banning Vishwaroopam, back in 2013.
In 2010, the lyrics of a song from the film Manmadhan Ambu, featuring Kamal Haasan and Trisha, became contentious for the Hindu Makkal Katchi community. The movie was released in 2010, after the song was deleted.
The film Mumbai Xpress faced criticism for having English title by the Tamil Protection Movement founder Dr S Ramadoss.
Indian Medical Association in Erode, Tamil Nadu, felt that title Vasool Raja MBBS, presented the medical profession in a poor light. However, despite criticism the film was released in 2004.
Haasan's 1992 film Thevar Magan generated controversy for glorifying violence in Thevar community of south India.
