Kerala HC questions CBFC over Suresh Gopi's Janaki vs State of Kerala row: ‘We have films with Ram, Sita in title'
Jun 27, 2025 07:12 PM IST
The Kerala High Court on Friday questioned the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on their decision to withhold certification for Union Minister, actor Suresh Gopi's upcoming Malayalam film JSK: Janaki vs State of Kerala. A Bar and Bench report states that the court pointed out that Indian films have Ram and Sita in the title, so it sees no objection. Suresh Gopi and Anupama Parameswaran in a still from Janaki vs State of Kerala.
Deputy Solicitor General of India (DGSI), Om Shalina, appeared before the HC on behalf of the CBFC and said the objection was regarding the central character of the film named Janaki, an iteration of Goddess Sita. The judge questioned the reasoning and pointed out that censor certificates were issued in the past despite names of Gods in titles, stating, 'Why should somebody change the name of a character? Janaki is a common name used everywhere. What religious purpose? We have movies with names Sita and Gita. Janaki is Sita. Nothing happened then. Nobody had any complaints. We have a film named Ram Lakhan. Nobody has any complaint. How come there are some complaints for Janaki now?'
JSK's producers, Cosmos Entertainment, filed a petition regarding the delay in censor certification. The petition mentioned that though the film certification was submitted on 12 June, the CBFC hasn't issued a certificate or issued any official objections. It also mentioned that the CBFC provided a certificate with no objections for the film's teaser. The petition states that the delay in certification was over an informal objection, claiming they only found out about the objection through news reports. They also called the objection 'arbitrary'. The DGSI claimed that the objection was to the film's 'mature themes', including sexual crime against women and explicit language used against women.
JSK, directed by Pravin Narayanan, was supposed to hit screens on 27 June. The General Secretary of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), B Unnikrishnan, announced a symbolic protest before the CBFC office on Monday, calling the pressure over title change 'disturbing'.
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