Plea in HC to revoke censor board clearance to Indu Sarkar

The petition claimed that the movie directed by Madhur Bhandarkar depicted late Indira Gandhi and her late son Sanjay in a bad light and was a “propaganda film”.

A plea was today moved in the Delhi High Court for revoking the censor board clearance given to Bollywood film Indu Sarkar, a film based on the 1975-1977 Emergency. The petitioner, a lawyer, mentioned the matter before a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar which listed it for hearing tomorrow. The petition claimed that the movie directed by Madhur Bhandarkar depicted late Indira Gandhi and her late son Sanjay in a bad light and was a “propaganda film”.

Neil Nitin Mukesh plays Sanjay Gandhi in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar.

The film is scheduled for release on July 28.

The petitioner, Ujjawal Anand Sharma, contended before the bench that the film-makers did not get a no-objection certificate from the Gandhi family prior to making the movie as was required under the film certification law when a movie was based on “real incidents” and people.

The petition claimed that the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) did not insist upon an NOC on the ground that the movie does not mention the names of Indira Gandhi or Sanjay Gandhi. The censor board, however, had granted a U/A certificate to the film after ordering 12 cuts, which were complied with.

The plea said, “A reasonable person of ordinary intelligence would be hard pressed to arrive at the conclusion that the characters depicted were indeed not fictional. “Even the posters and images were portrayed in such a way that clearly showed the intent of the film-makers beyond reasonable doubts that the character shown in the film were none other than late Indira Gandhi and Sanjay Gandhi,” the petition, which claims to be a PIL, said.