Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan, Ananya Panday’s film with Karan Johar based on C Sankaran Nair case; know all about it bollywood

Actors Akshay Kumar, R Madhavan and Ananya Panday will feature in an upcoming movie on acclaimed lawyer C Sankaran Nair, who fought a legal battle against the British empire in the 1920s. The film is based on the book The Case That Shook the Empire by Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat. (Also Read: Karan Johar says he has Vasan Bala’s back amid Jigra’s low box office earnings: ‘Always and forever’)

The film’s release date

Scheduled to be released in theaters on March 14, 2025, the untitled movie is backed by Karan Johar’s Dharma Productions in collaboration with Akshay’s Cape of Good Films and Leo Media Collective. The film will mark the directorial debut of writer Karan Singh Tyagi.

“An unknown story an unheard truth. Starring Akshay Kumar, R. Madhavan & Ananya Panday – this untitled film is releasing in cinemas on 14th March, 2025. Directed by Karan Singh Tyagi,” Dharma Productions posted on social media.

The story

According to the studio, the film centers around the “shocking cover-up of a massacre that pushed India’s top barrister C Sankaran Nair to fight an unprecedented battle against the British Empire”.

The Case That Shook the Empire was published in 2019 by Bloomsbury India and explored the 1924 defamation trial in which Michael O’Dwyer, former Lieutenant Governor of Punjab and the architect of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre, sued Sankaran. Sankaran had criticized British atrocities in Punjab in his book, leading to the widely reported trial that exposed the brutalities of British rule in India.

The book’s synopsis reads, “The widely-reported trial – one of the longest in history – stunned a world that finally recognized some of the horrors being committed by the British in India. Through reports of court proceedings along with a nuanced portrait of a complicated nationalist who believed in his principles above all else, The Case That Shook the Empire reveals, for the very first time, the real details of the fateful case that marked the defining moment in India’s struggle for Independence.”