Jana Nayagan maker to withdraw case amid censor row, hearing on February 10

The producer of Vijay's Jana Nayagan has filed plea to withdraw the case against Central Borad of Film Certification amid row. The hearing will be on February 10, 2026.

The producer of Jana Nayagan has officially moved to withdraw its writ petition against the CBFC. In a letter submitted to the Madras High Court Registry, the producer confirmed they have opted to take the film before a revising committee instead of continuing the legal battle.

Legal sources indicate that the petition is scheduled to appear before Justice P.T. Asha this Tuesday, February 10, marked specifically for withdrawal. This follows a move by KVN Productions LLP’s counsel, Vijayan Subramanian, who formally communicated that his client no longer wishes to move forward with the lawsuit.

Jana Nayagan was initially set for a January 9, 2026, debut. The CBFC’s five-member panel screened the film on December 19, 2025, with the production house later reporting that they were notified on December 22. According to the team, the board was prepared to grant a U/A 16+ certificate, provided certain requested cuts were made.

Rather than challenging the board for a ‘U’ certificate through the nine-member revising committee, KVN opted to accept the recommendations and completed all the requested cuts. The production house resubmitted the edited version of the movie on December 24, 2025. However, the process hit a snag when a member of the monitoring committee filed a complaint with CBFC Chairman Prasoon Joshi in Mumbai.

The letter of complaint read: "Dear Sir, It has come to my attention that the upcoming movie Jana Nayagan received approval from the Chennai board despite procedural lapses. The film portrays foreign powers fueling significant religious conflict in India—content that I believe could disturb the social and religious peace of our country."

"There are many Army related references in the film but no defence expert has been included in the Examining Committee to address these issues. There are procedural lapses during examination of the film which is gross violation of the Cinematograph Act and Rules. I am an APM (Advisory Panel Member) member and I have watched the film on December 19, 2025 but my objections were not considered during examination of the film. So, we humbly request you to intervene in the procedure and direct the competent authority to re-examine the film," the complaint added.

Following the arrival of the complaint, the CBFC took action on December 29, 2025, by ordering its Chennai Regional Office to freeze the certification of Jana Nayagan. By January 5, 2026, the production team was officially notified that the chairman had exercised his power to send the film to a revising committee for a secondary review. This directive was subsequently made public when it was uploaded to the e-cinepramaan portal on January 6.

Hours before the chairman’s decision went live on the portal, KVN Productions made an emergency move by filing a writ petition with the Madras High Court. The production house sought a court order to compel the CBFC to issue the U/A 16+ certificate within a 24-hour window. Given the urgency, they successfully moved a lunch motion, securing an immediate hearing for the case that very afternoon.

This is a developing story.