Kangana’s ‘Emergency’ teaser hits a raw nerve

Tribune News Service

Amritsar, August 22

Actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut has launched a salvo with the release of the trailer of her upcoming film ‘Emergency’, based on Indira Gandhi’s declaration of a state of emergency in India in 1975. The trailer was released on August 14 and the film is expected to hit the screen on September 6.

The MP from Mandi, who plays the lead role, has directed the film and is also one of the producers. In a sequence, Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale is reportedly shown as promising Indira Gandhi to bring in votes for the Congress in lieu of a separate Sikh state. This depiction has sparked a row at the negative portrayal of the Sikh community.

Not only the highest Sikh institutions — Akal Takht and Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) — Sikh leaders, too, have raised objections. Akal Takht Jathedar Giani Raghbir Singh and SGPC chief Harjinder Singh Dhami have demanded a ban on the release of the ‘anti-Sikh’ film.

Terming Bhindranwale as ‘Shaheed Sant of 20th century’, the jathedar said not only was his character being assassinated but also the film had depicted Sikh history in a negative perspective. He said the government must remove the ‘distorted contents’ as they had the potential to vitiate peace.

Bhindranwale, the chief of Damdami Taksal, was declared a ‘qaumi shaheed’ by Akal Takht in 2003.

Seeking an FIR against Kangana, Dhami said: “Creating an anti-Sikh narrative by misrepresenting the Sikhs as separatists was a despicable act of disrespecting the whole Sikh community.”

Sarabjit Singh Khalsa, an independent MP from Faridkot and son of Beant Singh (one of the two assassins of Indira Gandhi), sought the intervention of the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to impress upon the makers of the film to remove the objectionable portions that portrayed the Sikhs in a bad light. “Hate crime against Sikhs is being perpetrated globally. Now, this film will fuel it. There is no concrete proof to say that ‘Sant ji’ (Bhindranwale) had ever demanded the formation of Khalistan. The truth must prevail,” he said.

SGPC member Kiranjot Kaur regretted that the ‘big Sikhs’ were unduly publicising the film. “What was the need to give ‘muft’ publicity to the film? That’s what she (Kangana) wanted. Whatever is objectionable, get it censored,” she said.

Earlier, SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said Kangana had a history of speaking against Sikhs and Punjab. “She spoke in bad taste about women participating in the farmers’ agitation. Then, she reportedly misbehaved with a Sikh CISF staff member at the airport. And now, she has made this film that shows the Sikhs in the wrong light,” she added.