H Vinoth’s Jana Nayagan is finally hitting screens after a seven-month-long delay on July 23. The film, which will be the final film of Tamil Nadu chief minister Vijay, has high expectations pinned on it. Much before its release, there were rumours that the Tamil film is a remake of Anil Ravipudi’s 2023 Telugu hit Bhagavanth Kesari. The director spoke about it recently.
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In December the same year, when Anil was asked about it again, he stated that he met Vijay when he was shooting for Vamshi Paidipally’s Varisu (2023), adding, “He is a superb gentleman. This is his final film as he leaves cinema for politics. So, let us wait for the film to release to know if I have a role to play in it or not. After the release, everyone will know how they have treated it, and it would be correct to talk only then. Let us not call it a remake or anything else till then, it’s a Thalapathy Vijay film.”
Jana Nayagan stars Vijay, Mamitha Baiju, Pooja Hegde and Bobby Deol in lead roles. The film is Vijay’s first as TN CM after he won the election with his Tamilaga Vettri Kazhagam (TVK) party. It will also be released in Telugu as Jana Nayakudu and in Hindi as Jan Neta. Bhagavanth Kesari had starred Balakrishna, Sreeleela, Kajal Aggarwal and Arjun Rampal in lead roles.
How much of Jana Nayagan is similar to Bhagavanth Kesari?
In interviews with Galatta Plus, Vinoth revealed just how much of Jana Nayagan was a remake of Bhagavanth Kesari. He said, “Jana Nayagan is about 50% inspired by Bhagavanth Kesari. While the first half has 60% similarity, the second half has only 20%.”
The director also stated that after remaking Pink into Tamil as Nerkonda Paarvai with Ajith Kumar, he wasn’t really interested in doing another adaptation. However, Vijay told him that he really liked Bhagavanth Kesari and asked him to consider it. It only made the director sceptical because he wondered how he would adapt Balakrishna’s style to Tamil cinema.
“One thing I admire about Vijay sir is that he’s deeply committed to women’s empowerment. I saw the same conviction in Ajith sir when we worked on the Pink remake. I didn’t want to miss the opportunity to work on Vijay sir’s last film,” explained Vinoth.
In January 2025, VTV Ganesh revealed at an event that Vijay liked Bhagavanth Kesari so much that he watched it five times and wanted Anil to direct the remake. He also claimed that Anil had turned down the offer. However, the director clarified at the time that he did not say that. He also vaguely stated that it wasn’t right to talk about what hadn’t been officially announced.
