Ekta Kapoor's next web-series to focus on Indira Gandhi, emergency
Noted producer Ekta Kapoor has announced a new web-series for her company Balaji Telefilms' streaming platform, ALTBalaji. The series will be about Indira Gandhi and the emergency that was imposed by her from 1975 to 1977. The series will be called Verdict 2: The People v/s Indira Gandhi. It will be the second part of ALTBalaji's Verdict series, which earlier chronicled the Nanavati case.
Kapoor calls Gandhi 'a woman of worth admiration and critique'
Kapoor made the announcement by sharing cover images of two books, Emergency Retold by author Kuldip Nayar and The Case that Shook India: The Verdict That Led to the Emergency, by activist-lawyer Prashant Bhushan. She captioned it, "Time for Verdict2. The People v/s Indira Gandhi. A woman of worth admiration and critique. Our most ambitious story to tell...based on these in-depth stellar books."
First edition of 'Verdict' chronicled the Nanavati case
The first part of the Verdict series released in 2019 on ALTBalaji and ZEE5. The show traced the infamous Nanavati incident. The case was from 1959, named KM Nanavati v/s State of Maharashtra, in which an officer from Navy was tried for the murder of his wife's lover. The show starred Manav Kaul, Sumeet Vyas, Elli AvrRam, Angad Bedi and Kubbra Sait among others.
Ranaut ready too to play Gandhi in 'a grand period-film'
Before Kapoor, actress Kangana Ranaut had shared her plans of playing Gandhi in a period film, to be helmed by Sai Kabir. She had said, "It is not the biopic of Indira Gandhi. It is a grand period film. To be precise, it is a political drama that will help my generation to understand (the) socio-political landscape of current India. (sic)"
Other Bollywood projects that depicted Gandhi's life
In 2019, Vidya Balan had also announced that she would be playing Gandhi in a web-series, but nothing much is known about that project. Meanwhile, India's only female PM till date has been portrayed several times on celluloid. Aandhi (1975) was apparently based on Gandhi's relationship with her estranged husband, Feroze Gandhi. Naturally, the film was banned during the national emergency in 1975.
Madhur Bhandarkar's 'Indu Sarkar' attempted to display the Emergency on-screen
Filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar also attempted to bring the period of Emergency on screen with Indu Sarkar, but the film didn't make any impact and received mixed reviews. The 2017 venture had Supriya Vinod playing Gandhi, while Neil Nitin Mukesh portrayed her son, Sanjay Gandhi.
