CHENNAI: The South Indian Film Editor’s Association (SIFEA) on Friday temporarily suspended Pradeep E Ragav, editor of Vijay-starrer ‘Jana Nayagan’, for violating the bylaws of the association and allegedly failing to prevent the online leak of the film around April 9. The decision follows an emergency meeting convened on April 17 to discuss the matter.
The much-anticipated film, starring the actor-turned-politician, was originally set to release in January for Pongal but ran into issues with the censor board. The leak occurred during Vijay’s Assembly election campaign for his party TVK.
The Chennai Cyber Crime police, probing the case, arrested a freelance editor, who had worked on the film, for allegedly stealing and sharing the film.
In a statement on Friday, SIFEA said Pradeep is being suspended for the hiring of editors, who are not members of the association. Though Pradeep is not directly responsible for the leak, he has been suspended as the incident happened under his purview, the association said, adding it will not support Pradeep’s endeavours during the suspension period. SIFEA also urged other film associations to stand by the action.
When asked whether the hiring of freelance editors for films is an unusual practice, SIFEA president V Gopikrishna said, “Union protocols are established to preserve the sanctity of a film. In this day and age, when access to technology creates editors every day, protocols are there to safeguard that trust.
So even though freelance editors have been hired in the past, we try to avoid hiring a non-member to prevent problems like this. This is a practice that has been followed by unions that represent various departments in cinema.”
It may be noted that although multiple films have faced similar issues due to leaking of footage, crew members of such films were not directly penalised by the association in this manner.
Editor Pradeep, who began his career with the Vishal-starrer ‘Kathakali’, and went on to work on films like Comali (2019), Love Today (2022), Star (2023), and most recently in ‘Leader’ and ‘Love Insurance Kompany’.
Jana Nayagan, widely reported to be Vijay’s last film before he retires from acting for a career in politics, was originally planned for theatrical release on January 9. However, it is yet to be released as it is with the revising committee of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).