Amid high anticipation, Thalapathy Vijay’s Jana Nayagan missed its Pongal release date on January 9. Touted as the superstar’s final film before he enters into politics full-time, Jana Nayagan failed to receive
necessary certification from the Central Board of Film Certification.
This is not the first time when a film was delayed due to certification issues. One seminal January release among them was Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra’s Rang De Basanti.
Rang De Basanti Director Reveals Struggles To Release His Film
During an interview with Screen, Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra revealed that 20 years ago bringing Rang De Basanti to theatres was a struggle. Talking about the Ministry’s reservations on the film, Mehra shared, “The bureaucrats at the Defence Ministry told us, ‘Don’t call a MiG a MiG, don’t call a Defence Minister a Defence Minister, and you won’t get a censor certificate.’”
The director also revealed that he was asked to remove the scene on television where the defence minister said, ‘The soldiers aren’t in their senses but high on spirit while flying the planes.’ Recalling the incident, Mehra added, “They said you can’t do all of this. But I said, All of this is derived from real life. I have facts to support everything.”
Like Thalapathy Vijay’s Jana Nayagan, Rang De Basanti also missed its original release date. “They said your film is releasing on 19th January. It will take six weeks for the film to go through the process to clear it, and you will suffer. So I said, ‘Take six years, don’t take six weeks. We will release it after six years; it’s okay.’ But these are facts,” Mehra shared.
He added, “When we stuck to our guns, it went up to the Defence Minister and sailed through after that. Originally, it was supposed to release on 19th January, but it was released on the 26th. So what happens, happens for the good; we got a Republic Day release.”
Rakeysh Omprakash Mehra on Financial Struggles
The director recalled the significant financial challenges Rang De Basanti faced, even more than the censorship issue. “We were fighting for finances forever. It was just two months before shooting, and my earlier producers had to be legally removed from the film because they never performed. They never gave the money. I kept investing my own money,” he shared.
Mehra further added that his money fell short for the film’s budget, and he had to mortgage his office first and then his house in Pali Hill to keep pre-production running.
