People will be elated to watch emergency era: Madhur Bhandarkar

Mumbai: Director Madhur Bhandarkar, whose latest directorial venture 'Indu Sarkar' is releasing this Friday, says the whole euphoria is big and people will definitley watch the movie to get to know about the 1975-77 emergency period in India.Talking to UNI, Bhandarkar, who was in the national capital yesterday to promote his upcoming 1975 emergency based drama 'Indu Sarkar' said, "Today we can see people talking about Emergency on TV channels, social media.

After the trailer of my movie has released, there was also a big jump in the Wikipedia page of Emergency, because people went and saw what it was all about.So I feel there is awareness." "I am very active on social media like Twitter, Facebook or Instagram, so people are telling me that they will watch first day first show with their friends and family.

So I think the whole euphoria is big and today's generation is very well aware politically because on social media they have their opinion.So I am not saying this movie is going to be an encyclopedia of Emergency but people will get the gist, a ringside view of Emergency," the filmmaker said.The 'Heroine' director said that he has made a very moderate budget film."I have made a movie which is very moderate budget film.It is not a extravaganza movie or something like that.

'I am being known to make films which is content driven cinema," Bhandarkar said.Asked about his reaction to Ajay Devgn's Baadshaho , which also deals with the same subject of 1975 Emergency, the 'Page 3' director said," I have no clue about it.
'Baadshaho' is a thriller.

" Talking about the women-centric movies that he does, the 48-year-old director, said," I have a comfort level to show movies from the women point of view." When asked how he felt working with Kirti Kulhari, the protagonist of the movie, Madhur said it was great working with her.
"It was lovely working with her.She is a person who is charged with the role and the work.The 35 days I shot with her, she was absolutely with the character.

We shot chronologically, so she got the graph, the build-up of how it is going.She was brilliant.The same is the experience of working with Tota Roy Chaudhary, the Bengali actor.It was fabulous to work with both of them," he said.The 'Fashion' director said that as the filmmaker, he could see that Kirti took the character to a different level with her performance.About the future plans, Bhandarkar said,’’I will take break for some days.I have two- three scripts on which I am working on but right now, I am getting attacked from all the fronts-- politically, from censor board, to somebody filing appeal in the High Court, due to which we have to cancel events in Bangalore and Chandigarh.’’.

Speaking about the movie, he said,"I wanted to make a period film for contemporary India and I didn't want to go into costumes.So Emergency came to my mind.The topic was always under the carpet, people didn't talk about it and I feel today's generation is very keen to know about it.
" "We have depicted an era so you can draw resemblance in the movie but it is not a biopic.The characters you will see in the movie will only depict the era of Emergency," he added.

Asked if he felt today's generation will learn something from the movie, Bhandarkar said," Today's youth will definitely learn.I am not a giver of encyclopedia on Emergency with 2 hrs and 9 mins movie, but definitely a summary of it." Bhandarkar said the movie is the journey of a girl.

"The fictional story revolves around Indu, the protagonist who is an orphan.How she gains confidence and becomes a rebel," he said.Asked whether it is a real character, Bhandarkar said,"No.It is not a real character, just a name taken.It is a fictional story, just the backdrop is of Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi government.Only few incidents are inspired by true events happened during Emergency.

Only 30 per cent of the sequences in the film are based on reality while 70 per cent of the film is fictional." The film was finally cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) Revising Committee and Bhandarkar felt relieved at that.He, however, lamented lack of support from the film fraternity regarding the controversies that he had to.Bhandarkar felt angry on such type of selective activism."It feels really sad that I as a filmmaker always stood with the film fraternity -- whether it was regarding 'Udta Punjab' or 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' or any other film.
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But they must have had their own problems.That’s why you get angry when you see such selective activism.'Today what has happened to me, might happen with somebody else tomorrow.So, if you will support people as per your convenience, that won’t work. Really this has saddened me as I wanted the film fraternity to come on a stage or tweet about this film, but that didn’t happen,” he said, adding, “The kind of atmosphere that was created in Nagpur and Pune -- that’s really sad.

" On the political controversies surrounding the film, he said, “They (people) should not play politics through this film and should not involve the Prime Minister in it.They should see it as a film and not find politics in it.This film is a mixture of fiction and real events.” 'Indu Sarkar' is a human story about a woman who stands up for her rights, against the backdrop of the Emergency.

The story is told through a female protagonist, this time Kirti Kulhari’s stammering poet Indu, who becomes involved with an underground movement against the Indira Gandhi regime and is mentored by a character played by Anupam Kher.

The film, set against the backdrop of the 1975-77 Emergency, when the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi unilaterally had a state of emergency declared across the country, features Neil Nitin Mukesh, Kirti Kulhari and Tota Roy Chaudhary.It also stars Supriya Vinod and Anupam Kher.After ordering 12 cuts and two disclaimers, the CBFC had granted U/A certificate to the film.The movie is slated to release on July 28.(UNI)