On Friday, the Kerala High Court inquired as to the Central Board of Film Certification's (CBFC) choice to delay certification for Union Minister and actor Suresh Gopi's forthcoming Malayalam film JSK: Janaki vs State of Kerala. The court noted that Indian films have Ram and Sita in the title and thus it sees no issue, according to a Bar and Bench report.

The title dispute between Janaki and the State of Kerala in the Kerala High Court

Om Shalina, the deputy solicitor general of India (DGSI), represented the CBFC in front of the HC and argued that the issue at hand was the central character of the movie, Janaki, who is a version of the Hindu goddess Sita. The judge questioned the logic and noted that, in the past, censor certificates had been granted even when the names of Gods appeared in the titles, saying, "Why should someone change the name of a character? Janaki is a common name used everywhere." For what religious reason? Janaki is Sita, and we have films titled Sita and Gita. Nothing happened after that. No one had any grievances. We have a movie titled Ram Lakhan. No one has any complaints. Why is Janaki receiving complaints at this time?

The petition states what?

Due to the delay in censor certification, Cosmos Entertainment, the company that makes JSK, filed a request. According to the petition, the picture certification was filed on June 12, but the CBFC has neither granted a certificate nor raised any formal complaints. The article also stated that the movie teaser received an uncontested license from the CBFC. The petition claims that the delay in certification was caused by an informal objection, which they learned via news accounts. The objection was also deemed 'arbitrary' by them. According to the DGSI, the movie's 'mature themes'—such as sexual violence against women and the usage of abusive language against women—were the subject of the protest.

On June 27, Pravin Narayanan's film JSK was scheduled to premiere. The General Secretary of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala (FEFKA), B Unnikrishnan, dubbed the pressure over the title change as "disturbing" and announced a symbolic demonstration in front of the CBFC office on Monday.

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