MADURAI: The Madurai Bench of Madras High Court on Tuesday directed the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to submit a report on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed seeking removal of certain objectionable scenes from the Tamil film ‘Jana Nayagan’, starring Chief Minister C Joseph Vijay.
The litigant, M Chinnasamy of Pappapatti village in Usilampatti taluk of Madurai, alleged that their village was wrongly depicted as a casteist village in the opening scene of the film. In the said scene, the villagers were prevented from exercising their franchise in the panchayat elections and some of them were brutally attacked, he added.
Stating that the depictions were baseless and factually incorrect and have caused serious harm to the reputation, dignity and social standing of the village and its residents, he wanted CBFC to recertify the film by removing the said scenes before screening of the film in future.
When the case was heard by a bench of justices CV Karthikeyan and R Sakthivel, the judges chided the petitioner for watching the unauthorised version of the film which was leaked on social media several days before its official release.
The deputy solicitor general representing the CBFC also clarified that the village name used in the movie was ‘Pappampatti’ and not ‘Pappapatti’, as claimed by the petitioner.
Hearing both sides, the judges directed CBFC to file a written report on the aspects raised by the petitioner and adjourned the case to August 6.
