Actor and politician Kamal Haasan, whose Vishwaroopam faced huge opposition from Tamil Muslim organisations over its alleged insulting depiction of Muslims before its release in 2013, has had to wait 5 years to release its sequel, Vishwaroopam II .
Even though the sequel hasn’t run into any stringent opposition, the film is expected to kickstart fierce debates once again over representation of Muslims at a time when minority community members are at the receiving end of mob ire across the country.
The actor has been refuting criticism that Vishwaroopam franchise exasperates anti-Muslim sentiments. Kamal Haasan has also insisted time and again that the film in fact features a patriotic Indian Muslim as the hero. “It is a sequel and a prequel. It will explore why the protagonist became patriotic,” he told reporters recently.
Though the release of the film is likely to be smooth on August 10, much has indeed changed in Tamil Nadu since Vishwaroopam II was announced.
The sequel releases at a not-so-great time when millions are still mourning the loss of DMK chief and Dravidian stalwart M Karunanidhi.
It is also significant for the fact that actor Kamal Haasan has already announced that this was going to be one of his last few films – the rest being Sabaash Naidu and Indian 2 .
The actor who is generally big on movie promotions has kept the launch of Vishwaroopam II pretty low key, choosing to promote the film mainly on Bigg Boss 2 - a reality television show, across multiple languages.
