Confirming long-standing speculations about Vijay's much-anticipated Jana Nayagan being a remake of Nandamuri Balakrishna's Bhagavanth Kesari, director Anil Ravipudi, who helmed the 2023 film, affirmed that Vijay's action drama has the "soul" of his story. However, in a recent interview with Telugu 360 channel the filmmaker underlined that H Vinoth has made several changes in it.
Ahead of the release of his film Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu, Anil Ravipudi was probed about the comparisons between Bhagavanth Kesari and Jana Nayagan to which he said, "The team has taken the basic soul of Bhagavanth Kesari to remake Vijay's film. Some of the parts are the first 20 minutes of the film, intermission and a few sequences in the second half. However, they have completely changed the villain's track and his goal to include sci-fi elements like robots in it." The director further expressed his hope that the film will become successful for the GOAT actor as many elements in Bhagavanth Kesari would work for him. "No matter what anyone says or does, I strongly feel that the soul of my film is there in Jana Nayagan and with the addition of Vijay, it will do well," he added.
Speaking about the "shot-by-shot remake" of the film in many portions as pointed out by social media users, Anil Ravipudi explained, "When you think of a remake to get the highs, that's what you do. That is what people have been doing all these years. That is what a remake means...to take a film in another language. They didn't tell it publicly that it's a remake which could be because of a myriad of reasons including social media negativity. It's a tough challenge to hide it, but it is a fresh subject for Tamil audiences. Not every Tamil person in the world has seen Bhagavanth Kesari."
While Mana Shankara Vara Prasad Garu, headlined by Chiranjeevi hits theatres on Monday, Jana Nayagan has been pushed from its initial release date of January 9 owing to censor board-related issues. Since then, many celebrities including actors and directors like Kamal Haasan, Pa Ranjith, Silambarasan, Ravi Mohan, Jiiva, and Karthik Subbaraj, among others extended their solidarity with the film's team and to Vijay, criticising the censor board's actions of not granting them a certificate.
After a hearing before the Chief Justice of Madras HC on January 9, following an appeal by the CBFC, the Court stayed the single judge's order made by Justice PT Asha which granted U/A 16+ certificate. The next hearing for the writ appeal is scheduled for January 20. KVN Productions have reportedly moved the Supreme Court, challenging the Madras High Court's interim stay, requesting an urgent hearing of the appeal, for as early as Monday. An update is awaited on the same.
Jana Nayagan stars an ensemble cast which includes Mamitha Baiju, Bobby Deol, Gautham Vasudev Menon, Prakash Raj, Priyamani, Pooja Hegde, Narain and others.