Vijay-starrer ‘Jana Nayagan’ release delay frustrates Tamil Nadu film industry

At a time when the OTT revolution seems to have severely eaten into the exhibition business, the delay in the release of actor Vijay’s farewell movie, Jana Nayagan, which is currently mired in a dispute over the film’s certification by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) in the courts, has dampened the mood of the film exhibitors.

Producers, distributors and exhibitors state that a “big Pongal release” would invariably rake in a few hundred crores in revenue, and Jana Nayagan’s failure to hit the screens has put the exhibitors and distributors in the dock.

Producer and distributor G. Dhananjheyan said that Jana Nayagan’s failure to release during the Pongal festival was a loss of opportunity and that the loss was only “notional,” but added that the delay affected smaller films that released without a plan or a strategy.

“Usually, the Tamil Nadu collections (for a big star’s film) during the Pongal festival are around ₹250-300 crores. Due to the postponement (of Jana Nayagan), the total collection was only around ₹125 crores in January 2026. It is a notional loss as whenever ‘Jana Nayagan’ releases, this collection will be recouped but the opportunity to have earned that in January was lost,” he said.

“However, theatres have lost revenues from various other streams with limited footfalls during the month. Also, many other films couldn’t plan and schedule the release in January and have lost their opportunity (release during Pongal),” added Mr. Dhananjheyan.

Further, other releases during Pongal, namely actor Sivakarthikeyan’s Parasakthi and actor Karthi’s Vaa Vaathiyaar, couldn’t keep the money flowing at the box office. Only actor Jiiva’s Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil unexpectedly became a runaway hit, providing some respite to the exhibitors.

Well-known distributor Tiruppur Subramanian said that it would have been better for the theatres if the festival had a big release, but they are banking on other films to do well.

“It would have certainly brought more people into the theatres. But, we are hoping the upcoming releases such as Pradeep Ranganathan’s LIK does well,” he shared. “However, the lack of clarity on when Jana Nayagan is expected to release is creating a confusion as producers of other films prefer to avoid any clash of release dates with a Vijay film,” Subramanian points out.

A theatre owner in a district nearby Chennai said movies such as Sirai and Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimaiyil did reasonably well at the box office, but added that smaller films alone cannot sustain the exhibition business.

“We were banking on Parasakthi and Vaa Vaathiyaar, but both didn’t do well. In fact, for the last four to five months, we have been struggling to run theatres. Movies are not that successful; audience footfalls have reduced. The audience relies mostly on YouTube reviews. It is not easy to run movie theatres with increasing energy bills and wages,” he added.

He also flagged the issue of how every region (be it North Arcot, South Arcot, etc.), as it is known in film business parlance, is dominated by one or two distributors who dictate terms to theatre owners. “There is no room to negotiate these days. The terms are fixed and often tilted against us,” he said.