‘Jana Nayagan’ row: Ram Gopal Varma slams Censor Board, calls it ‘outdated’

Veteran filmmaker Ram Gopal Varma (RGV) has questioned the necessity of India's film censorship system in response to the ongoing Jana Nayagan certification dispute.

His remarks come amid a legal battle between the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and the producers of the much-awaited Thalapathy Vijay-starrer, which has led to the postponement of the film's release during the Pongal festival season.

Touted as a political drama and Vijay's swan song before entering politics full-time, Jana Nayagan was temporarily delayed by the Madras High Court after a previous ruling asked the CBFC to grant the movie a U/A certificate. The board challenged the court's order, resulting in a second hearing set for January 21 and putting the movie's distribution on hold.

Ram Gopal Varma Slams Censor Board

In a detailed post on X (formerly Twitter), Varma called the censor board ‘outdated’ and contended that theCBFC’s existence in its current form ‘insults the viewers.’

He wrote that it was “truly foolish to think that the censor board is still relevant today,” arguing that the institution has “long outlived its purpose” but continues due to a reluctance to debate its relevance.

“It’s being kept alive out of laziness to debate its relevance now, and it is the film industry as a whole which is mainly responsible for this,” Varma wrote.
Beyond the Jana Nayagan debate, Varma's criticism touched on more general changes in media consumption.

He pointed out that audiences are often exposed to vivid and unfiltered content online in the digital era, with no gatekeepers, ranging from violent visuals to obscene content.

“And in this reality, for the honourable censor board to believe that cutting a word in a film, trimming a shot, or blurring a cigarette will ‘protect society’ is a Joke,” Varma continued.

Referring to the board's actions as ‘theatrics,’ Varma wrote that the process often replaces genuine thought with symbolic gestures of authority — “where scissors replace thinking, and moral pretence moves around in a disguise called responsibility.”

He emphasised that censorship reduces the audience's agency rather than preventing exposure, implying that although age categorisation and content warnings make sense, censorship does not.

Ram Gopal Varma also pointed out that the censor board's conventional duty has become ‘obsolete’ in the current world, where many unmonitored platforms exist. Rather than maintaining outmoded procedures, he urged authorities and the film industry to face this reality.

“The painful question is whether the authorities have the courage to admit they are obsolete, and whether we as a film industry collectively have the will to question them,” he wrote.

Read the full post here:

CENSOR

BOARD is OUTDATED

Not in the context of just @Actor_Vijay ‘s #JanaNayagan ‘s censor issues but in an overall manner, it is truly foolish to think that the censor board is still relevant today

It has long outlived it’s purpose, but it’s being kept alive out of laziness…

— Ram Gopal Varma (@RGVzoomin) January 9, 2026

A single-judge bench of theMadras High Court initially gave the green light for director H Vinoth's Jana Nayagan on Friday morning, January 9, ordering the CBFC to issue a U/A certificate to the film.

However, later in the day, a division bench led by Chief Justice Manindra Mohan Shrivastava temporarily halted the process. With the next hearing now scheduled for January 21, the Pongal release window is no longer possible.