Indu Sarkar

After much hullabaloo, Madhur Bhandarkar’s political thriller ‘Indu Sarkar’ finally released this Friday, but failed to rake the expected moolah at the ticket counters. The film opened at Rs 85 lakhs nett on its first day, as reported by Boxofficeindia.com.

Directed, co-written and co-produced by Bhandarkar, the film is set in the 21-month-long period of the emergency in India from 1975 to 1977 imposed by the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. Kirti Kulhari of ‘Pink’ fame, who plays the titular role in the film, took several workshops to get the stammering right. Neil Nitin Mukesh reportedly plays Sanjay Gandhi in the film and has been widely appreciated for his striking resemblance to the late politician. On the other hand, Supriya Vinod too looks like a mirror image of Indira Gandhi. Tota Roy Chowdhury plays Kirti’s husband Navin Sarkar in the film. Anupam Kher has a prominent role in the film, besides Parvin Dabas and Sheeba Chaddha.

The release of ‘Indu Sarkar’ was however marred by quite a few incidents of protests by political parties who objected to the film and threatened to prevent its release in Indore. On the day of the release, the workers of the two opposition parties clashed in front of a cinema hall in Indore which was screening the film. In another incident, Madhur cancelled the interviews with the press during the promotions of the film as the party workers created a ruckus at the hotel where he and his team were lodged in. The filmmaker had also requested the party leader Rahul Gandhi to intervene and take action against the protesters.