KUALA LUMPUR — It’s finally happening — the critically acclaimed local Tamil film Jagat returns to cinemas nationwide on October 3 in celebration of its 10th anniversary, followed by the release of its two spiritual sequels: Macai on November 13 and Blues on December 4.

Ahead of the re-release, a special media screening was held yesterday at Lotus Five Star (LFS) cinemas in Petaling Jaya, giving members of the press a chance to revisit this groundbreaking story that took the nation by storm a decade ago.

Watching Jagat again felt much like experiencing it for the first time, with the key difference being that the film has been trimmed from its original 90 minutes to 80 minutes for a more compact experience, and the entire colour correction has been redone, according to director Sun-J Perumal.

The re-release and its accompanying sequels were first announced in April, but all three have faced multiple delays — initially slated for earlier this year, then postponed to align with Malaysia’s cultural month, and now finally scheduled for release at year’s end.

Sun-J, who helms all three films, explained that the delays were a necessity due to limited marketing funds, especially since the team was working on launching all three films within the same year.

“Whatever we do, we have to manage with very minimal resources and careful planning,” he said.

“Some parts of the marketing plan had to be postponed, so we felt we needed more time to do it properly.

“Eventually, some of the marketing activities were carried out two months later than originally planned.”