Director SP Jhananathan passed away due to a cardiac arrest on March 14 and his demise came as a shocker to the entire Tamil film industry. SP Jhananathan is known for directing quality content-driven movies like Iyarkai, E, Peranmai, and Purampoku Engira Podhuvudamai. His next directorial film is Laabam which stars Vijay Sethupathi and Shruti Haasan in the lead roles. The film's shooting was completely wrapped up at the beginning of this year and it was only during the editing work of Laabam, director SP Jhananathan fell unconscious and was rushed to the hospital. The doctors were unable to save him and he was declared to be dead.

Following his unfortunate demise, the makers of Laabam have now issued an important statement revealing that the film will be released in theatres in the month of April, as initially planned. The film is produced by Arumugakumar's 7Cs Entertainment and the production company issued the statement on behalf of the entire team. A minor amount of post-production works are yet to be completed and it will be executed by the team of Laabam.

The official statement from 7Cs Entertainment read, "Director SP Jananathan's films deal with indisputable facts and world scenarios that will stand the test of time. Laabam, which has been jointly produced by our firm in association with Vijay Sethupathi Productions, is one such film, featuring actor Vijay Sethupathi in the lead. We were working diligently to complete the final leg of post production associated with Laabam in a bid to bring the film to you in theatres at the earliest when our director SP Jananathan passed away. His demise has left us shattered, shocked, and in a state of deep sorrow.

However, director SP Jananathan has completed most of the work pertaining to Laabam and the remaining work that is pending will be completed by our Laabam team. We therefore wish to inform you that as planned, we will be releasing Laabam in both Tamil and Telugu this April in theatres on a massive scale. There can be no doubt that Laabam, will surpass the expectations of director SP Jananathan's fans, and will be the crowning glory of the director's filmography. We are honoured to be able to bring to theatres the film conceived and directed by a visionary of our times, SP Jananathan sir, a human with unparalleled vision". Get ready to witness late director SP Jhananathan's final creation, Laabam, on the big screens, this April!

Saddened by #SPJananathan sir loss, Jana sir completed most of the work for #Laabam, Movie to release in Tamil & Telugu this April.#MakkalSelvan @VijaySethuOffl@shrutihaasan @immancomposer @ramji_ragebe1 @vsp_productions @7CsPvtPte @Aaru_Dir @yogeshdir @LahariMusic @proyuvraaj pic.twitter.com/bBpdkuSeCj

— Arumugakumar (@Aaru_Dir) March 20, 2021