India’s censor board demands name change for Malayalam movie ‘JSK’ 

The producers of the upcoming Malayalam legal drama JSK – Janaki vs State of Kerala, have filed a petition in the Kerala High Court against India’s film certification board for demanding a change in the movie title days ahead of its theatrical release. 

The production house Cosmos Entertainment, the news portal Onmanorama reported, has questioned the unexplained delay in certifying the movie, which stars Indian lawmaker Suresh Gopi and Anupama Parameswaran in the lead. Going by its trailer, Gopi plays a barrister who wages a legal battle to bring justice for a wronged woman.

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Pointing out that this would stall the movie’s release, slated for June 27, the production house claims they are yet to receive a response from the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) more than a week after the movie’s censor screening.  

The CBFC reportedly said that the name ‘Janaki’ must be changed as it refers to the Indian deity Sita, and that it can’t be linked to a character facing assault. This comes even as the film had previously completed its certification and was awarded a U/A 13+ rating without cuts.  

“We were supposed to load the content with the censor certificate attached on June 20 for distribution to release centres across the world. But... the CBFC officials told the producer that the film won’t be certified unless the film and character names are changed," the movie’s director Pravin Narayanan was quoted as saying by The Hindu.  

“We told them to give us a written document denoting this, so that we can proceed to the review committee. The officials have told us that they will provide this on Monday. We have already spent a lot on publicity events and marketing. The online ticketing process was also about to begin.”  

The move, however, has met with opposition from the film fraternity.  

“Where is the country heading? In these circumstances, it would be tough to choose a name for characters belonging to the Hindu religion, as the majority of them would be epithets of Gods or Goddesses," B Unnikrishnan, general secretary of the Film Employees Federation of Kerala, was quoted as saying by the Press Trust of India.