By Shivani P Menon
Tamil actor Vijay’s starrer “Jana Nayagan” feud with the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) is still going on, as CBFC has appealed against the Madras High Court decision to grant a U/A certificate to the movie.
This came right after Justice PT Asha pronounced the order today at 10.30 am, allowing the producer’s plea. ASG A.R.L Sundaresan for CBFC appealed against the order before a bench led by Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava.
The court replied by saying that they will consider it, and told ASG to file the appeal and mention the matter again. The movie was supposed to be released today, but because of the censorship row, it’s been postponed.
The Chief Justice’s Bench is expected to hear the appeal, or on January 12, if the case gets numbered by 10th of January.
Satish Parasaran, Senior counsel assisted by Vijayan Subramanian, argued that the producers got to know about the issue only on January 5, yet they had submitted the movie for certification as early as December 18. He also said that they had invested around 500 crore in the production and had planned a worldwide release on January 9. As CBFC had conveyed their decision at the last moment, all their plans failed.
One of the five members of the examining committee of ASG, who are representing the CBFC, had sent a complaint to the chairman of CBFC saying how his opinions were not considered before making the recommendation.
The ASG said that under the Cinematograph (Certification) Rules of 2024, the chairperson of the board has the power to send a movie to the revising committee if she/he is not satisfied with the examining committee’s recommendation. He also said that the court could not instruct to grant a certificate, but can only direct them to carry out its statutory responsibilities within a specified time frame.