Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M.K. Stalin slammed the Union government and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the troubles faced by upcoming big-ticket Tamil films Jana Nayagan and Parasakthi in getting their films cleared by Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for release. While Sivakarthikeyan's Parasakthi is set to release on January 10, Thalapathy Vijay's Jana Nayagan will not hit screens for now owing to legal challenge with the CBFC.
Interestingly, Parasakthi is being presented by his grandson, Inban Udhayanidhi, through Red Giant Films, a company founded and long helmed by his father, Deputy Chief Minister Udhayanidhi Stalin.
Targeting the BJP, Stalin charged that the CBFC has now become a new weapon in the hands of the ruling BJP. Stalin condemned the manner in which CBFC functioned and said in a post on X, "Like CBI, ED, IT, the Censor Board has also become a new weapon of the Union BJP government."
The DMK leader's charge comes amidst CBFC certification troubles faced by the much-anticipated films of 2026. While Jana Nayagan was slated to release on January 9, the makers had to postpone the film's release after the CBFC withheld its certificate.
Though a single-judge bench of the Madras High Court cleared the certification of Jana Nayagan on Friday, a two-member bench later stayed the order, leading to confusion over the release of the film. Said to be the last of film of Thalapathy Vijay before his full-fledged plunge into politics, the examining committee of CBFC withheld certification for the film and referred it to the revising committee. Reportedly, the film was initially granted a U/A certificate and was later withdrawn following a complaint from a member of the revising committee.
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Vijay's fans allege that Jana Nayagan's certificate was withheld due to political vendetta. Vijay-led TVK calls the BJP its ideological enemy. Jana Nayagan's producers, KVN Productions, have now approached the Supreme Court to get the film cleared for release by January 14.
Parasakthi also faced a fair share of troubles before release. Set against the backdrop of anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu in the 1960s, the film was granted a certificate only after the makers agreed to make over twenty modifications and cuts.