The Madras High Court has put off its decision on the Central Board of Film Certification’s (CBFC) appeal. The CBFC is challenging a single judge’s order that told them to certify actor and Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief Vijay’s film, ‘Jana Nayagan’.
The filmmakers argued their case by bringing up ‘Dhurandhar 2’. They pointed out that its makers had also announced a release date before getting a certificate.
Madras High Court Defers Verdict
The court didn’t buy that argument. They made it clear that just because you’ve poured money into a film or set a release date, that doesn’t mean you can demand relief.
Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan listened to the case. All this happened after a single judge had told the CBFC to issue a ‘U/A 16+’ certificate for ‘Jana Nayagan’, which gave the producers a bit of hope, at least for a while.
‘Jana Nayagan’ was supposed to hit theatres on January 9, but the CBFC refused to clear it, saying the film needed to go before the Revising Committee.
The producer, K Venkat Narayana, rushed to the High Court asking for urgent help he wanted the CBFC to certify the film. However, the CBFC appealed to a division bench, which put the single judge’s order on hold on January 9.
‘It’s Not A Practice To Wait For A Certificate’
The court also grilled KVN Productions, asking why they’d announced the release date without a censor certificate.
Senior advocate Satish Parasaran, representing the production company, pushed back. He said this is business as usual in the film industry. He mentioned ‘Dhurandhar 2’ again announced for a March 19 release at the end of the first film and said producers announce release dates all the time, even if the certification process isn’t finished yet.
As Parasaran put it, “It’s not a practice to wait for a certificate to announce the release date. If you see Bollywood, they’ve already announced Dhurandhar 2.” In other words, this is just how things work in the industry.
CBFC vs Jana Nayagan: Madras HC Rejects ‘Dhurandhar 2’ Argument
Previously, the Supreme Court had refused to hear a plea filed by the producers of the Tamil movie requesting to have the stay of the order made by the Madras High Court halting the certification procedure of the movie.
The case was heard by a bench of Justices Deepankar Datta and A.G. Masih, who requested the Madras High Court to rule on the case before January 20.
The producer of the film the KVN Productions LLP, filed the plea. The producer appealed against a decision of the division bench of the Madras High Court, which had placed a stay on a previous direction issued to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to give the film a certification.
Jana Nayagan was intended to release on January 9 during Pongal, and is being described as the last movie of Vijay.
The movie got into trouble when the CBFC refused to give the certification of the movie, stating that some of the scenes in the movie were likely to hurt religious feelings.
