Bans, censorships and more: How the Indian film industry fought Emergency with its back to the wall

Kishore Kumar was banned from All India Radio and Doordarshan, Aandhi was axed from the big screen after its release and political satire Kissa Kursi Ka didn’t see the light of day at all... the Emergency years were a time of great churn for the film industry where creativity peaked but so did censorship.

The erstwhile prime minister Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in the country on June 25, 1975, plunging the country into turmoil. And it was not just about politics. The entertainment sector felt the brunt of the long, repressive arm of the state and those who did not toe the line suffered hugely.

It was a stand out 21 months — Emergency was lifted on March 21, 1977 -- that also saw Dev Anand start his own party, the National Party of India, in protest against the regime. The apolitical star brigade came out in strong support of the Janata Party with artists such as Pran, Shatrughan Sinha, Pran, Vijay Anand and Danny Denzongpa making their opinion known.

“During the Emergency, the film industry galvanised itself and stood against the government... At least the key people of the film industry had the guts to stand up to the government and say, what are you doing is not right,” film historian and author S M M Ausaja told a news agency.

Gulzar’s Aandhi, starring Sanjeev Kumar and Suchitra Sen as an ambitious woman politician, complete with a white streak in her hair, a' la Indira Gandhi, was released in February but banned in July, soon after Emergency was imposed.

Filmmaker Amrit Nahata’s satirical Kissa Kursi Ka, which critiqued the people around the then PM, did not make it to the theatres. The negative was destroyed and its prints confiscated by then Information and Broadcasting minister Shukla, who was close to Indira Gandhi’s younger son Sanjay.

The movie, a satire about the current political system with the character of Gangaram modelled on Sanjay Gandhi, featured Shabana Azmi, Raj Babbar, Raj Kiran, Utpal Dutt and Manohar Singh.

Nahata, who was a member of the ruling Congress but joined the Janata Party after Emergency, remade the movie and released it in 1978. However, this version also faced censorship.

“They tortured my father a lot. He received several death threats. The film was shot and everything was completed. When the film was submitted to the censor board, the fight started,” Nahata’s son Rakesh said in an interview.

“In Delhi, it was screened at Mavalankar Auditorium. Sanjay Gandhi and VC Shukla saw the movie. After that, the secretary of the I&B ministry told us it will not pass. They said they will ban the movie as it is against the country,” he said.

The legendary Kishore Kumar, as famous for his golden voice as for his idiosyncrasies, became a target when he refused to participate in Geeton Bhari Shaam in 1976 to eulogise the Twenty Point Programme of the government.

According to Kishore Kumar: The Ultimate Biography by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Parthiv Dhar, Sanjay Gandhi wanted Kumar to sing jingles in praise of the government and its schemes. And so, he got a call from an I&B ministry official asking him to come to Delhi for the programme.

“No one can make me do what I don't want to do. I don't sing at anyone's will or command,” Kishore Kumar had said in an interview later.

Many attempts were made to convince the singer but to no avail. He was labelled non-cooperative and the government decided to ban his songs from All India Radio and Doordarshan for three months. Later it was decided that even if his voice is used, his name will not be mentioned.

The year that Emergency was imposed was also the one that saw the release of Sholay, Deewar, Nishant, Chupke Chupke, Julie and Jai Santoshi Maa.

While many resisted the imposition of Emergency at great personal cost, popular cinema responded by channelling that disenchantment through Amitabh Bachchan’s Angry Young Man persona.

“... He (Bachchan became an icon because what people could not say in real life, they could see the hero saying it on the screen. That rebellion of the people were epitomised by Amitabh Bachchan. If you look at history, his biggest hits came in between 1975 to 1978,” Ausaja said.

Amrit Gangar, film scholar, curator, author and historian, also called the period “quite a productive year for Indian cinema... where on one side was Aandhi and on the other was a religious film called Jai Santoshi Ma.

“It (Aandhi) had already run theatrically but the problem arose when some of film's posters, particularly in south India, announced ‘See your prime minister on screen’. Censors doubted that Suchitra Sen’s role was modelled after Mrs Indira Gandhi. The white streak of her hair was obvious, along with the way she walked."

It was not just about Hindi cinema. The makers of the 1975 Kannada film Chanda Marutha suffered because of Emergency, he said. The film, based on P Lankesh’s play Kranthi Bantu Kranthi, was directed by Pattabhi Rama Reddy and featured his wife Snehlata Reddy. She was thrown into jail and died just five days after being released on parole. Ausaja said the Emergency should be a lesson for today’s government.

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