A historical courtroom drama centering on C. Sankaran Nair, the barrister who challenged the British Empire over the 1919 Jallianwala Bagh massacre
Directed and co-written by Karan Singh Tyagi, produced by Dharma Productions alongside Leo Media Collective and Cape of Good Films
🗓 Release & Runtime
Theatrical release: April 18, 2025 – marking the 106th anniversary of the massacre
Certified ‘A’ by the CBFC, with a runtime of approximately 135 minutes (2h 15m)
OTT debut: June 13, 2025 on Jio Hotstar
👨🎭 Cast
Akshay Kumar as Sankaran Nair, the relentless Indian lawyer
R. Madhavan as Neville McKinley, the British Crown's sharp legal adversary
Ananya Panday as Dilreet Gill, an earnest law student assisting Nair
Regina Cassandra as Nair’s wife, Kunhimalu Amma, and supporting roles by Simon Paisley‑Day, Alexx O'Nell, Steven Hartley, among others
📜 Plot Summary
Based on the book The Case That Shook the Empire, the film dramatizes Nair’s legal crusade to expose General Dyer and the British as perpetrators of a genocide, not mere riot suppression
Aided by Gill and a young revolutionary Pargat Singh, he confronts McKinley in tense courtroom showdowns
Though the verdict doesn't fully deliver justice, Nair's fight reverberates as a turning point in India’s freedom struggle