New Delhi: With the electoral turf getting trickier and tougher by the day, all eyes in the saffron camp are now centred on three forthcoming films — The Accidental Prime Minister, Indira and Narendra Modi’s biopic. A senior BJP leader said these films “will expose the truth about the leaders and help build perception among the electorate”. While The Accidental Prime Minister will not exactly be a glorfication of former PM Manmohan Singh and show how the Nehru-Gandhi clan had used him, the Web series Indira is expected to reveal two sides of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi — one as “Durga” and the other as a “terrible dictator who imposed the Emergency and tried to destroy institutions, from her own party to the judiciary”. The biopic on Prime Minister Narednra Modi will highight the struggle of an ordirnary poor man, who through his sheer determination and love for the nation has risen to power.
Actor and BJP MP Paresh Rawal, who plays the role of Mr Modi in the biopic, when asked how events like the Gujarat riots would be depicted, told a national daily: “Everything will be there. The notion that people have... The people who are roaming around acting as the judiciary... their notion will also be tackled.” Responding to a query “Can we expect that there would be no attempt to glorify him?”, he replied: “Don’t worry, everything will be there.”
Actor Anupam Kher, FTII chief, whose wife Kirron Kher is a BJP MP, will play Dr Manmohan Singh in The Accidental Prime Minister, based on the 2014 book of the same name by Sanjaya Baru.
Actor Vidya Balan plays Indira Gandhi in an adaptation of Sagarika Ghose’s biography. Paresh Rawal, who plays Mr Modi, had said: “Only I can play Modi. I say that even at the cost of sounding pompous because I really love him. I understand whatever he says.”
All these films and the Web series are expected to be released before the big battle of 2019. A BJP leader who sought anonymity while talking of the impact of movies, recalled two films Nasbandi and Aandhi which were decades ago banned by the then Congress government for their “negative and controversial portrayal” of then PM Indira Gandhi. Nasbandi, a 1978 Bollywood film, directed by I.S. Johar, was a satire on the sterilisation drive by the government during Indira Gandhi’s days. The film was banned after its release due to its portrayal of the Indira Gandhi government and its compulsory sterilisation drive during the Emergency. The ban was lifted after a change of government.
Similarly, Aandhi, directed by Gulzar, was not allowed a full release while Indira Gandhi was in power. The film was banned during the Emergency, which was imposed a few months after its release. The ban immediately made the film a nationwide topic. “These movies had exposed the then Congress regime and Indira Gandhi, and despite being banned helped changed the mood of the nation,” the BJP leader said.
Some saffron leaders believe these films would convince the “people of India” that at this point, “Modiji is the only leader, who has dedicated his life for the welfare of the nation”; and the “notion created by the pseudo-secular brigade on the 2002 riots will be cleared once and for all”.
