Congress party slams Madhur Bhandarkar's Indu Sarkar, calls it 'fully sponsored'

Madhur Bhandarkar's Indu Sarkar has been heavily criticised by the Congress party for its alleged portrayal of the government of India under former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The first look of Bhandarkar's film depicted Neil Nitin Mukesh and Supriya Vinod looking exactly like Sanjay Gandhi and Indira Gandhi, respectively. 

Speaking to the media, Congress spokesperson Jyotiraditya Scindia said, "This film is fully sponsored. The organisation and the individual who is behind the film is known to us. We totally condemn the false depictions in the film."

While Bhandarkar has vehemently denied these accusations, he had previously mentioned that, "The events in the film are inspired by true events and I thought it is important to tell this story specially to today's generation as they are not aware about this Emergency of 21 months from 1975 to 1977."

The film has also received a green light from CBFC chairman, Pahlaj Nihalani. Speaking to News18 channel, Nihalani said, "Indu Sarkar does not name anyone. There is no mention of Mrs. Indira Gandhi or Sanjay Gandhi or anyone else in the trailer. You are only presuming the film is about the people you mention because of the physical resemblance." 

Nihalani and the board had earlier asked the documentary film, An Insignificant Man (2015), and the upcoming, The Accidental Prime Minister (2018) to get No Objection Certificates from the people depicted, and mentioned in the respective films. Surprisingly, no such demand has been made for Bhandarkar's film. 

Indu Sarkar also stars Kirti Kulhari and Anupam Kher,  among others. The film is set to be released on 28 July.