In the end, the ‘one-headed Ravana’, as the eponymous hero of Kaala styles himself, was unstoppable. The Rajinikanth-starrer will hit the screens on Thursday, following judicial intervention from three different courts.
A day after the Karnataka High Court ordered the State government to give police protection to theatres screening the film, the Madras High Court and the Supreme Court refused to stay the release of the film, which has been facing legal and political hurdles.
While the Madras High Court refused to accede to a plea for an interim stay, a vacation bench of the Supreme Court comprising Justices A.K. Goel and Ashok Bhushan did not entertain a plea by K.S. Rajashekaran seeking an injunction.
“You want an injunction against the release of the movie. Everybody is waiting for the film to be released,” the bench told the petitioner’s counsel. “Let it be released. How can we stop the release?” the bench said. The petitioner claimed that the script, songs, and scenes in the movie were his creation and had been used without his permission.
The film will hit the theatres in Karnataka, where pro-Kannada groups have been agitating against it, in protest against the actor-turned-politician’s remarks on the Cauvery river water dispute.
Earlier, Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy had suggested voluntarily backing off from the release in view of the sentiments of the protesters. But he had also assured of police protection. Rajinikanth said that it was not right to oppose the film for his political views on the Cauvery river water dispute.
(Inputs from Chennai & Bengaluru)
