Censor war intensifies: Industry giants rally behind Vijay’s ‘Jana Nayagan’
New Delhi: Prominent figures in the Indian film industry have formed a united front against the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) following its controversial handling of actor-politician Vijay's upcoming feature, Jana Nayagan.
Filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma led the criticism, branding the board "outdated," while actor Sivakarthikeyan drew attention to the significant collateral damage the dispute is causing for major Pongal holiday releases.
On Saturday, acclaimed director Mari Selvaraj, known for his cinematic explorations of social hierarchy, added his voice to the growing dissent. In a post on X, Selvaraj urged fellow creators to “raise a loud voice” against regulatory interventions, characterising the row as a critical test of how the state manages political cinema and warning against a “spreading fear” over artistic freedom.
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Ram Gopal Varma, in a detailed critique posted late Friday, labelled the CBFC’s continued existence "foolish" in an era where children have unfettered access to extreme content online. He accused the film industry of complicity, stating the board is sustained only by a collective “laziness to debate its relevance.”
“Censorship doesn’t prevent exposure; it only insults the viewers,” Varma wrote, pointing out the hypocrisy of a society that consumes graphic material on social media while demanding theatre restrictions.
Actor Sivakarthikeyan, speaking Friday after his own film Parasakthi finally secured certification, expressed dismay that both his project and Jana Nayagan faced last-minute hurdles. While acknowledging that the board operates under specific regulations, he emphasised the severe financial and operational toll on producers, theatre owners, and daily-wage workers.
Sivakarthikeyan described the logistical nightmare of implementing 25 mandatory cuts to Parasakthi in a single afternoon to meet digital delivery deadlines. “We didn’t have time to get into why they suggested these changes... we had to implement them and load the film on CUBE,” he said, noting the difficulty of preserving a film's "core" under such pressure.
Meanwhile, Venkat K. Narayana of KVN Productions, the firm backing Jana Nayagan, released a video detailing the procedural "volte-face" that stalled the film. According to Narayana, the project was submitted on Dec. 18, 2025, and received a "UA 16+" recommendation by an examining committee on Dec. 22.
Despite the producers implementing all suggested modifications, the board allegedly referred the film to a revising committee on Jan. 5 following an undisclosed complaint. This move prompted a Madras High Court intervention, which initially ordered the film's release before a division bench issued a stay on Friday evening, pending further hearings.
With inputs from PTI