Madras HC stays order directing CBFC to grant censor certificate to 'Jana Nayagan'

Chennai: The Madras High Court on Friday granted stay on the order of a single judge directing CBFC to grant censor censor certificate to actor-turned-politician Vijay-starrer 'Jana Nayagan.'

A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava and Justice G Arul Murugan granted the stay after Additional Solicitor General ARL Sundaresan and Solicitor General Tushar Mehta (appearing through video conferencing) outlined the grounds for appeal by the CBFC and argued the matter.

Besides 'Jana Nayagan,' which is Vijay's last movie before his full-fledged political plunge, Tamil Nadu eagerly awaits the release of another politically loaded film 'Parasakthi,' which captures the language struggle of the 1960's and said to reflect shades of the Dravidian ideology.

While Parasakthi's screening has been cleared by the censor board, it is not clear if the TVK chief Vijay-starrer movie would hit the screens ahead of the harvest festival Pongal, next week.

Directed by H Vinoth, the film "Jana Nayagan" stars actors Vijay, Prakash Raj, Pooja Hegde, Mamitha Baiju, among others.

The film team, having completed all work, sent it for censorship on December 18.

Subsequently, on December 19, the censor board that viewed the film reportedly advised the removal of some scenes and muting of some dialogues.

Even after changes suggested by the censor board members were made, the censor certificate has still not been issued, the petitioner movie production house had submitted.