**Breaking News - Vishwaroopam to releases first on TV **

Vishwaroopam controversy has rocked Tamil Industry during this weekend. As a result, Tamil Theatre Owners' Association is planning to ban Vishwaroopam in Tamil Nadu. Read below Kamal Haasan's radical decision, which has sent shock-waves in the Industry.

Kamal's plans to release Vishwaroopam in TV/Home Video on January 11

Kamal Haasan has been negotiating with a number of all India distributors for almost 6 months to sell Tamil, Telugu and Hindi version of Vishwaroopam for a total of Rs. 100 Crores. Unfortunately, none of the discussions had resulted in a fruitful outcome causing further delays. 

After much deliberation, Kamal came up with a radical plan to achieve his 100 Crore elusive vision by releasing Vishwaroopam in all 3 languages simultaneously in major TV networks all over India. Kamal had negotiated for a first day release (one-time) for almost Rs. 50 Crores with DTH operators (Tata SKY, Dish TV, Reliance and Airtel - Except Sun Dish TV). Promotion plans are underway to make this day-one release of a big-budget movie through on-demand home TV. Based on initial estimations, the collections through paid subscriptions was expected to be huge with potential customers in almost every household all over India.

Well-known Tamil Producer/Distributor Shocked about Kamal's Plan

On Friday, a well-known Tamil Producer/Distributor was invited for a discussion with Kamal Haasan to finalize the theatrical rights for Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. After the deal was negotiated for roughly around Rs.40 Crores, Kamal broke this news of simultaneous release also in TV networks. The producer was shell-shocked and had to clarify a few times to fully understand the repercussions of Kamal's 'Vishwarooba' plan. 

TN Theatres to ban Vishwaroopam

Annulling the negotiated deal with Kamal, Producer left in a hurry to make a number of phone calls to key members of the distributors and theatre owners' association. By Saturday evening, this news had spread in the industry like a wildfire. Many people in the trade expressed deep concerns that if Kamal's TV release idea becomes a success, many future movies will follow this new revenue model resulting in slowly wiping out the theatrical collections.

Kamal is planning to announce his first day TV release idea to public on December 7 during the Vishwaroopam audio launch. The theatre owner association's Trichy Sridhar convened a Joint-emergency session with all its members to discuss the banning of Vishwaroopam all over Tamil Nadu, if Kamal didn't repeal his plans.

It is not yet clear whether Kamal will back-off his TV release plans or go ahead with more vigour challenging the theatrical ban.

Update Dec 5, 2012 - Kamal Haasan confirms first day DTH TV Release plan for Vishwaroopam