Things haven’t been smooth for the team behind Jana Nayagan. They’re still waiting on the censor certificate, and that’s holding up advance ticket bookings everywhere, even in Tamil Nadu, where the film is based.
Vijay stars in the lead. This is actually his last film before he steps away from movies to dive into politics. But what’s really causing the holdup? Let’s break it down.
Jana Nayagan gets entangled in Censor row
Jana Nayagan’s supposed to hit theatres on January 9. But with the censor process still dragging on, advance bookings just haven’t kicked off in a big way.
Here’s where it started: On December 19, the team sent the film to the Censor Board. The officials asked for a couple of small cuts and told the team, verbally at least, that they’d get a U/A certificate.
Then, on December 24, after making the changes and resubmitting, the process stalled first because of the Christmas break, and then because the team was still waiting for a green light.
Fast forward to January 5. Suddenly, the film lands with the Revising Committee. Apparently, there were concerns about hurting religious sentiments and how the armed forces were shown.
The Regional Censor Office told the makers to reach out to the Mumbai office. All this back-and-forth meant the censor certificate still wasn’t ready, and big advance bookings in India stayed on hold.
Frustrated, the team took the issue to the Madras High Court, asking for the certificate to be issued. Justice PT Asha handled the case, asked for all the records to be submitted by Wednesday, and set the next hearing for January 7 at 2:15pm. Now, everyone’s waiting to see what happens next.
Will Jana Nayagan be postponed amid the Censor row?
Jana Nayagan will be released to theatres on January 9. When the makers are able to have the censor certificate even one day prior to the release of the film which is January 8, then Jana Nayagan is on track of getting a release. But anything later than this will jeopardise the Vijay-starrer.
Interestingly, these last-minute challenges have not dampened the mood of the Vijay fans since advance bookings are being at an all time high in the cities.
First-day-first-show (FDFS) in single screens such as Gopalan Grand Mall, V Cinema, Sri Vinayaka, Cinephile HSR Layout, and Brundha RGB are sold out in Karnataka on BookMyShow.
Jana Nayagan: What’s up with the advance bookings?
Kerala is also recording good initial signals, with trade observers registering good advance sales at single screens that indicate the huge following of Vijay. The overseas growth has been reported to hit more than Rs 25 crore.
Under the leadership of H Vinoth, Jana Nayagan also features Pooja Hegde, Bobby Deol, Mamitha Baiju, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Priyamani and Narain.
