Cine News Digest – 25 Jan 2026

Jana Nayagan verdict this Tuesday

The fate of Vijay’s last film, Jana Nayagan, will be known this Tuesday, 27 January when the Madras High Court is expected to make a ruling. The delay has proven to be financially crippling for everyone who had invested in the movie – from producers to distributors and exhibitors. The loss from not having released during the Pongal festival weekend is unlikely to be recovered with a new release date. While officials of the CBFC are placing the blame on the film producers for announcing a release date before certification, the producers are countering – quite correctly – that it has been the norm in the industry for several decades now.

Amid all the controversy, widespread public comment and a lot of irresponsible comments from many of Vijay’s fans, the failure of Vijay to make any comment on the issue has given ammunition to his political opponents and rival fan groups.

Parasakthi crosses 100 crores at global Box-Office

Sivakarthikeyan’s 25^th film Parasakthi, which also had to cross an eleventh hour hurdle with the CBFC, did manage to release for Pongal, amid threats of boycotts and intimidation from many of Vijay’s fans. An intense campaign of coordinated negativity against the film did have some impact on the film’s takings, but the week preceding this report saw the film record Rs 100 crores at the worldwide box-office, making this Sivakarthikeyan’s fourth 100-crore movie after Doctor, Don and Amaran.

Sivakarthikeyan’s next as producer

Sivakarthikeyan will soon launch his next production under his banner S.K. Productions. The film will mark the directorial debut of his brother-in-law, Karthikeyan.

Jiiva’s comedy becomes sleeper hit of 2026

Jiiva’s Thalaivar Thambi Thalaimayil was initially scheduled to have released on 20 January, but was brought forward after Jana Nayagan failed to release. Capitalising on the festival weekend, the film had a strong opening, but positive word of mouth has seen the movie become a sleeper hit. A deal is currently being finalised for the film to be remade into Hindi.

The film is directed and co-written by Malayalee director Nithih Sahadev, who made an impressive directorial debut with the Malayalam film Falimy. This film marks his second directorial and sees Jiiva in his 45^th film, supported by Prathana Nathan, Thambia Ramiah, Illavarasu, Meenakshi Dinesh and Jenson Dhivakar.

M. Sasikumar and Era Saravanan join hands again

Era Saravanan, the director of Nandhan has launched a film starring Sasikumar in the lead role. The film is produced by Million Dollar Studios. Era Saravanan’s last film, Nandhan, had Sarathkumar, Samuthrakani and Suruthi Periyasamy in the lead roles.

Arasan nearing completion

Action sequences featuring Silambarasan TR and Vijay Sethupathy are to be filmed in the next shooting schedule of Arasan scheduled to take place in Chennai during the second week of February. Directed by national award-winning director Vettrimaran, Arasan also stars Andrea Jeremiah, Kishore Kumar G and Samuthrakani

Earlier this week there were unconfirmed reports that talks are at an advanced stage for Silambarasan TR to star under the direction of A.R. Murugadoss. The big budget film will be produced by Kalaipuli S. Thanu. If finalised, the film will be launched in July this year.

Manikandan to star under director Desingh Periyasamy

Meanwhile Silambarasan TR still has to complete shooting for his much talked about and much-delayed film for director Desingh Periyasamy. While that project awaits release, the director has decided to do a quick low-budget film that will star Manikandan in the lead role.  Desingh Periyasamy’s projects have suffered numerous setbacks and delays since being launched. He will have a second film release six years after his impressive directorial debut with Kannum Kannum Kollaiyadithaal.

R.M. Rathnakumar scripts Ravi Mohan’s next film

R.M. Rathnakumar made his directorial debut with Meyaadha Maan which starred Vaibhav, Priya Bhavani Shankar and Vivek Prasanna, but is better remembered for his scripting in Master, Vikram, Leo and Sardar 2. He has now teamed up with Bakkiyam Shankar to pen a script that will be directed by Dada director Ganesh K Babu – Karathey Babu which will have Ravi Mohan playing the lead role. The film also stars KS Ravikumar, Nassar, Kaali Venkat and Shakti Vasudevan.

Dhanush’s 55^th film as a new producer

Dhanush has stepped in as producer with Shraddha Agrawal’s R Take Studios in D55 being directed by Rajkumar Periyasamy, the director of the 2024 megahit film, Amaran. The collaboration will see the film’s budget expanded, thus increasing the already high expectations of the film.

Karthi’s impressive line-up for 2026

Karthi is desperate to recover from the reputational damage suffered by the failure of his Pongal release, Vaa Vaathiyaar written and directed by Nalan Kumarasamy. He will soon 2 more schedules for the sequel to Sardar which is being directed by P.S. Mithran.

He is also currently acting in under the direction of Thamizh in a film titled Marshal. Thamizh made his directorial debut with Vikram Prabhu’s Taanakaaran and scripted the story and script for Vikram Prabhu’s hit film Sirai, released in December 2025. Karthi also has on the cards films for Sundar C, Mari Selvaraj, Sailesh Kolan, Pa Ranjith and the long delayed Kaithi 2 with director Lokesh Kanagaraj. He is also in talks with A.R.Murugadoss  and Siva.

Suriya’s generosity and his latest film

Suriya magnanimously came to the financial rescue of K.E. Gnanavelraja’s Studio Green to pave the way for Vaa Vaathiyaar to be released this Pongal. With that film failing to ignite much interest, Suriya is to undertake various new projects under his newly launched Zhagaram banner. Suriya is currently working on his 47^th – which sees him co-star with Nazriya Nazim with Jithu Madhavan as director.

Jayaram and Urvasi reunite on screen

Jayaram and Urvasi will share the screen again in a forthcoming Tamil film that will be directed by Pandiraj. The film reunites on screen Jayram and Urvasi as a pair after 20 years. The film will be a full-length comedy caper.

Sirai actor in a new film

L.K. Akshay Kumar, who made an impressive debut with Vikram Prabhu in Sirai, has been signed on to star in his first solo lead film. Produced by Seven Screen Studios, the producers of Sirai, the first look of this film will be released tomorrow – 26 January.

Rishikanth to debut as a lead actor

Tamil cinema will have another lead actor when supporting actor Rishikanth makes his debut as a lead actor in a big budget movie to be produced by Mythri Movie Makers. Rishikanth played important supporting roles in Coolie and Indian 2.