Today is one of the most important days in modern Tamil cinema history. The Madras High Court is setting the stage to pronounce the verdict on the legal storm over Thalapathy Vijay’s much-hyped farewell movie, Jana Nayagan. After a week filled with high-stakes drama and legal wrangling, Justice P.T. Asha will place the order at around 10:30 AM IST.
The film should either get to a certification and go to cinematic release or get a long, arduous revision ordeal and then wait weeks, if not months to see its release when it's released, following the verdict is expected.
The Lawyer's Role in the Crisis: On the Law of the Crisis: Why is 'Jana Nayagan', in Court?
The controversy started when the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) rushed the film to the attention of a Revising Committee, only days before its planned major release on January 9.
The Key Contentions: The Examining Committee
Originally four of five committee members have recommended a U/A 16+ certificate after 27 specific changes are agreed on by makers (KVN Productions). The dissenting voice: One board member wrote an internal complaint, saying the portions of the show would be politically fraught, would be misused as defense force insignia, and may be harmful to “minority sentiments.”
The Referral
It was for this single objection that the CBFC Chairperson suspended certificate issuance for the film and referred it to the Mumbai-based Revising Committee on January 5. Because of big losses and the Pongal festival window running up till the last minute, the producers took their case to Madras High Court, claiming that their referral was “arbitrary, vague and illegal.”
A ₹500 Crore Gamble at Stake
The legal team for the producers, under the guidance of senior counsel Satish Parasaran, stressed the extent to which the crisis was of a large scale. Projected at ₹500 crore, the film was set to launch on 5,000 screens worldwide. The delay has already resulted, officially, in the postponement of the movie.
Even if the court finds in favor of the makers today at 10:30 a.m., the logistics of distributing the Key Delivery Messages (KDM), the encrypted keys necessary to play the digital film in theaters, for thousands of screens render a same-day release near-impossible.
Industry Reaction
A Rallying Cry for Vijay The Tamil film fraternity has rallied behind Vijay as a countdown to the verdict embarks on. Well-known stars such as Silambarasan TR and director Karthik Subbaraj have backed the approach and urged for more streamlined censorship guidelines, which don't "choke" major productions in a pinch.
At the same time, theater owners and distributors are busy in the dark. With screens already adjusting their schedules to accommodate Sivakarthikeyan’s Parasakthi or Prabhas’s The Raja Saab, Jana Nayagan could, in a favorable ruling, set off an enormous logistical reshuffle, forcing the “superstar’s farewell” into theaters by the weekend.
