Haasan's brother meets TN Home Secy

In an attempt to end the ongoing dispute over the release of 'Vishwaroopam', actor-filmmaker Kamal Haasan's brother Chandra Haasan on Friday met Tamil Nadu Home Secretary R Rajagopal and leaders of protesting Muslim groups here.

Chandra has co-produced ´Vishwaroopam´.

The protesting groups have reportedly asked Chandra to cut nine minutes from the movie.

The agitating Muslim groups had claimed that the film´s depiction of their community is offensive.

"The Tamil Nadu Home Secretary on Friday met Chandra Haasan, brother of actor and director Kamal Haasan, and representatives of the protesting Muslim groups to hammer out a solution to the ongoing furore over Haasan´s new film ´Vishwaroopam´. The meeting was held at the secretariat," CNN-IBN reported.

Earlier reports said, Kamal Haasan was expected to commence his first round of talks with several Muslim groups on Friday.

Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Thursday asserted that the government will facilitate the discussion.

Jayalalithaa broke her silence and said she halted the release of ´Vishwaroopam´ in the state fearing violence based on intelligence reports and not for any grudge against the actor-filmmaker.

The film was slated to not release in Tamil Nadu till Feb 6 after the stay order since the bench set aside the interim order by a single bench judge of the same court.

Meanwhile, the Hindi version of Kamal Haasan´s much hyped as well as controversial film ´Vishwaroopam´ has hit the theatres across New Delhi and Mumbai and some other cities on Friday.

´Vishwaroopam´ is written, directed and co-produced by Haasan that features him in the lead role.

The film also has Pooja Kumar, Rahul Bose, Andrea Jeremiah and Jaideep Ahlawat in supporting roles.

The film, which is a 95-crore project was shot in many locations, including largely in USA, while sets resembling Afghanistan were constructed in Chennai.