Remembering Indira Gandhi, the former Prime Minister of India, not only does the face of a strong woman come in front of our eyes, but the dark history of the emergency period also becomes a memory in front of our eyes. Indira Gandhi did not let anyone stand in front of her, even if she had to impose emergency overnight in the country or even ban a film.
A film, yes Indira Gandhi had banned the film ‘Aandhi’, which was released on February 13, 1975. The reason was political threat. Let’s talk about this film from the beginning.
The film ‘Aandhi’ was not a new type of film by the way. The story of the film is about the love of the daughter of a hotel manager and politician. Those who meet, get separated and are found again. What was special was the appearance of the lead actor’s character, which was very similar to Indira Gandhi, due to which there was so much ruckus about the film. Suchitra Sen was playing the lead role in the film.
However, the film was not banned at the time of release. The film released well. People watched and appreciated too. Because Suchitra’s character in the film was so similar to Indira that the opposition party used some of her clips as a political agenda in the coming Gujarat elections. In these clips, Suchitra was shown smoking cigarettes and alcohol. Which was served by the opposition party in such a way that it started tarnishing the image of Indira. Indira did not want to take any risk about her chair, so she banned the film. Well, when the emergency was lifted in 1977, the ban was lifted from this film as well.
Years later, Gulzar admitted in an interview that the character was inspired by Indira Gandhi but had nothing to do with reality.
