Following Rajinikanth’s comments on the Cauvery row in which he asked Karnataka chief minister HD Kumaraswamy to release to Tamil Nadu its share of Cauvery water, as mandated by the Supreme Court, the Karnataka Film Chambers of Commerce or KFCC on Tuesday decided not to allow screening of his movie ‘Kaala’, due for release on June 7. Following their stand, the Karnataka distributor for Kaala, Saurav Sharma, has also backed off.

Saurav told IBTimes, “We held discussions with the film chamber. The chamber has asked all its members to not release the film in the state. We have voluntarily decided not to release the film considering the sentiments of the people in the state. From what we see, it doesn’t look like this issue is going to be resolved before the movie releases.”

According to a report in TOI, Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha president Vatal Nagaraj said, “We will not allow release of any old or new films of Rajinikanth and Kamal Hassan until they apologise and withdraw their remarks, which are against our interests in the sharing of the Cauvery water with Tamil Nadu and other states.”

The president of KFCC , Sa Ra Govindu, also backed his statement and said that even though the distributors and exhibitors would have invested a lot in buying the rights of the film months before its release, the body is happy that they have taken the decision not to screen the film “in the largest public interest and to maintain peace in the state,” and added, “We will not be responsible for any damage caused to theatres and cinema halls if they want to screen Rajinikanth and Kamal Haasan films.”

He also added that they were not against actor Rajinikanth himself, but welcomed the move by the distributors to not release the film to maintain peace in the state.

Meanwhile, Rajinikanth said the issue will be solved amicably. The Karnataka chamber is part of the South Indian Film Chamber (of Commerce). Definitely they will intervene and solve it amicably,” the actor said.