Who Was C. Sankaran Nair? The Barrister Behind Karan Johar and Akshay Kumar’s Upcoming Biopic

Akshay Kumar and Karan Johar are all set to collaborate for the third time and this time with a biopic on late barrister and freedom fighter Chettur Sankaran Nair. Akshay Kumar will don the role of barrister Nair, while R. Madhavan and Ananya Pandey will play other vital roles. The Dharma Productions owner announced the project in 2021, and now Johar has announced the release date.

The untitled project will hit theaters on March 14, 2025. Karan Singh Tyagi will direct the film, which is based on Raghu Palat and Pushpa Palat’s book The Case that Shook the Empire.

The book delves into one of the longest trials in Indian history, centered on a defamation case brought by Sir Michael O’Dwyer, the key figure behind the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. It addresses a lawsuit against C. Sankaran Nair, who exposed the atrocities committed during the British Raj in Punjab through his writings. The case lasted five weeks, and towards the end, Nair stuck to his guns and refused to apologize.

Who was C. Sankaran Nair?

Sir Chettur Sankaran Nair was an Indian lawyer who served as the Advocate-General of Madras from 1906-1908. From 1908-1915, he acted as the justice in the Madras High Court. After that, he was selected as the India-wide Education minister and was a Viceroy’s Executive Council member until 1919.

In his book, ‘Gandhi and Anarchy,’ he wrote about the British atrocities, and the former barrister also wrote vociferously against Mr. Gandhi. When the Jallianwala Bagh massacre happened in 1919, Nair was moved.

Initially, he intended to resign from the Executive Council, but another Congress leader, Annie Besant, intervened and persuaded him to stay. Other party stalwarts, like Motilal Nehru, also requested him to stay, but finally, Nair resigned, citing that he could not continue to work with the British government.

He faced trial at the Court of the King’s Bench in London, presided over by an English judge, and his case garnered global attention. His case also brought to the forefront the inhumane treatment the British government subjected the people of Punjab to.

Since the case was being tried in an English court, it had to get a biased judgment, and all but one judge voted against Nair’s favor.

The Congress leader refused, saying that “12 different English shopkeepers’ would hardly give him a different verdict.

The case brought several changes in British governance.

Even though the case verdict wasn’t in Nair’s favor, it compelled the British government to change its governance significantly. Press censorship was abolished, and martial law was canceled within 15 days of Nair’s resignation as Education Minister of the Viceroy’s Council.

His resignation also forced the government to appoint the Hunter Commission to investigate the events of the Jallianwala Bagh massacre. The then secretary of state, Edwin Montagu, once considered Nair impossible but later realized that the lawyer wielded more influence than any other Indian.

Akshay Kumar will play the unsung hero who played a crucial role in highlighting the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre. Let’s see how far the Kesari star goes.

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