EXCLUSIVE | 'Emergency' star Kangana Ranaut draws similarity between her & former PM: 'Indira Gandhi was called the Goongi Gudiya for the longest time, whereas I have been always very confident'

Kangana Ranaut is not only one of the finest actresses in the country, but has also turned a filmmaker. She made her directorial debut with Manikarnika in 2019 and is now gearing up for the release of her new film Emergency. She essays the role of the former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi. It’s a historic and complex character to essay.

In an exclusive interview with Firstpost, the actress and filmmaker spoke about the challenges to direct a film based on the national emergency that was imposed in 1975, taking the director’s chair once again, and if she sees any similarities between her and Gandhi.

Edited excerpts from the interview:

What do you feel would have been the impact of the national emergency back in 1975 on the country?

They caught my grandfather and took him away from sterilization. He was a Patwari. He had five children. So anybody who had a large family was taken away. So many years have passed so such incidents are discussed in a light mode. Just imagine the trauma people must have gone through at that time. What if they take you away from your office one day?

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You have played real life characters before. How do you get into the headspace of these characters, more than getting the physicality right?

Some characters are more difficult like Jhansi Ki Rani. You don’t have any data so you don’t know whether you were accurate or not. There is a little bit of independence and liberty in that. As far as Indira Gandhi is concerned, she loved the media, she was the media’s darling. She was hugely documented everywhere and every time, be it the Bangladesh liberation or even the wars that were televised on Doordarshan. Indira Gandhi loved that glory and attention. We have a lot of footage, so I could do my homework and pick some impressions.

Do you see any similarities between you and Indira Gandhi?

I don’t because Mrs Gandhi was surprisingly a very unconfident person. She was very vulnerable, she kept chewing her Lower lip and lip twitching, eye twitching. She was very petite as a person. I come from a different background. I come from a middle class family from a village you have never heard of. She’s the Prime Minister’s daughter who has studied in Geneva, London. She never had the confidence to speak in the parliament.

She was called the Goongi Gudiyaa for the longest time. Whereas I have been always very confident. Whether I know English or not, I have to speak English. (Laughs). I never second-guess what other person is thinking about me. It’s only about what I think about them. She was very much concerned about that. Later, there was an enormous shift and she went to an another extreme but that’s another story.