Jana Nayagan row: Tamil cinema rallies behind Thalapathy Vijay

A day after the makers of Tamil superstar Vijay’s swansong film Jana Nayagan announced the postponement of the film’s release due to the ongoing censor certificate debacle, several prominent film personalities have come out in support of Vijay. Jana Nayagan, which was slated to release on Friday, January 9, was postponed after the Madras High Court reserved orders on a writ petition filed by the makers against the non-issuance of the film’s censor certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).

The issue has spiralled out into a major controversy, with many believing it to be politically motivated. For the unversed, Jana Nayagan marks the last film of the Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam chief before he becomes a full-time politician.

On Thursday (January 8), Tamil star Silambarasan TR took to his official X handle to express his solidarity with Vijay. “Dear @actorvijay anna, Setbacks have never stopped you. You’ve crossed bigger storms than this. This too shall pass, real Thiruvizha begins on the day #Jananayagan releases (sic)” he wrote.

Actor Ravi Mohan, whose film Parasakthi was originally slated to clash with Jana Nayagan, wrote, “You don’t need a date.. you are the opening. Whenever that date is.. Pongal only starts then.”

Meanwhile, ace director Venkat Prabhu, who helmed Vijay’s previous film The Greatest of All Time, quoted the tweet by KVN Productions (the banner backing Jana Nayagan) announcing the postponement and wrote,” No matter what!! This one is gonna be the BIGGEST farewell in Indian cinema #JanaNayagan (sic).”

Meanwhile, in a long post on his X handle, acclaimed filmmaker Karthik Subbaraj called for “unity” from people in the film fraternity to “save cinema”. He stated that the strict timelines and rules in place to obtain a censor certificate are hard to follow, especially for those who are backing tentpole projects like Jana Nayagan. “It puts a lot of pressure on filmmakers during the post-production stage, especially when you are doing a big budget film, having already announced the release date. With current timeline rules, for both Indian and overseas censors, the ideal time for a film to be completed is three months before the release date, and that’s highly impossible for many reasons. The system has to be streamlined and made a bit easy for filmmakers,” he wrote, while sharing an image from the acclaimed Italian film Cinema Paradiso.

Actor Shanthnu Bhagyaraj, who had acted alongside Vijay in the 2021 action film Master, too showed his solidarity on X.

Director Ajay Gnanamuthu condemned the CBFC, writing, “If this can happen to the biggest films, it can happen to anyone. CBFC has to be condemned here for not acting fair and causing huge losses to the industry on the whole. Stand for what is right at the right time!!(sic).”

Actor Sibi Sathyaraj, a huge fan of Vijay, wrote, “All the events happening around #Jananayagan release is setting the perfect stage for a massive success (sic)”

Writer-director Rathna Kumar, who co-wrote Vijay’s Leo and wrote dialogues for the star’s Master, said, ”Its Painful to see big films getting postponed time and again for the past few months. Tamil Film Industry is in Grave Danger. Stay Strong @actorvijay sir and Team #JanaNayagan. You have Revived Tamil cinema during covid times. We know you will do it for the One Last time”

Actor Shivathmika Rajashekhar, who was recently seen in Aaromaley, wrote, “Whenever #JanaNayagan releases, your girl will be there.”

Vijay’s Jana Nayagan, directed by H Vinoth, is billed as an action-entertainer. It stars Pooja Hegde, Bobby Deol, Prakash Raj, Priyamani, Narain, Gautham Vasudev Menon, and Mamitha Baiju in pivotal roles. It is produced by Venkat K. Narayana of KVN Productions, and co-produced by Jagadish Palanisamy and Lohith N.K.