Kangana Ranaut has announced that she will be directing a film based on the life of Indira Gandhi, India’s first woman Prime Minister.
Calling the project Emergency, the 34-year-old actor took to Indian social media app Koo to announce the news. She wrote: “Pleased to wear director’s hat again, after working on Emergency for more than a year I finally figured no one can direct it better than me.”
“Collaborating with fabulous writer Ritesh Shah, even if it means sacrificing on various acting assignments I am determined to do it, my excitement is high. This is going to be a tremendous journey, my leap to another league #Emergency #Indira,” she wrote.
In a previous statement, the Queen actor clarified that the film isn’t a “biopic” but “a grand period film” about Gandhi’s life in which she will also be acting. “To be precise, it is a political drama that will help my generation to understand the socio-political landscape of current India,” Ranaut said.
She also told Pinkvilla that this project is going to be her second “directorial.”
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“Even though I wanted another film, which I am also ready with, as my second directorial. But, it so happened that I was very keen to bring Indira Gandhi’s story which has never been brought to screen. I was very eager to bring it to screen,” she said.
Indira Gandhi was an Indian politician and a central figure of the Indian National Congress. She was the first and, to date, only female prime minister of India from January 1966 to March 1977 and again from January 1980 until her assassination in October 1984.
Furthermore, she was also the daughter of Jawaharlal Nehru, the first prime minister of India.
Gandhi went to war with Pakistan in support of the war of independence in East Pakistan that resulted in an Indian triumph and the making of Bangladesh. Emergency marks a dark period in Indian history lasting between 1975 and 1977 when Gandhi suspended many civil liberties, cancelled elections and censored the press.
Apart from the new film, Ranaut has been busy defending herself in a defamation case filed by Indian lyricist and poet Javed Akhtar.
The 76-year-old poet filed the case against Ranaut for remarks against him in a November 2020 TV interview.
Earlier this year, Twitter permanently suspended Ranaut’s account after it said she repeatedly violated its rules on “hateful conduct” and “abusive behaviour”.
