Scoop: I & B Minister, Censor Chief, Madhur Bhandarkar Get Restraining Notice From Sanjay Gandhi’s ‘Daughter’

Startling and shocking as it may sound,a lady claiming to be slain Congress politician and youth leader Sanjay Gandhi’s daughter has sent a legal notice to the director Madhur Bhandarkar, the Minister Of Information & Broadcasting M Venkaiah Naidu, the chairperson  of the CBFC Pahlaj Nihalani and producer Bharat Shah to stop the CBFC from certifying Bhandarkar’s political film Indu Sarkar from release.

The film, as we all know by now, recreates the events  during the dreaded Emergency that was clamped on Indian democracy in 1977.

The lady Priya Singh Paul  claiming to be Sanjay Gandhi’s “daughter” in her 4-page legal notice dated 23  June states that she has come to know that her “father” Sanjay Gandhi and her grandmother Indira Gandhi played by Neil Nitin Mukesh and Supriya Vinod, are shown in roles “without accurate or with sufficient historical data” and may be shown in  “poor light”. The legal notice goes on to say that the release  of the film should be stopped until Ms Priya Singh Paul is shown the film and approved by her.

The recipients of this startling legal notice have been given a week to respond.

While Madhur Bhandarkar refused to comment, CBFC ChairpersonPahlaj Nihalani expresses bafflement  over the content of the legal notice.  “We had no idea Shri Sanjay Gandhi had another child besides Varun Gandhi. The notice says Ms Priya Paul Singh is ShriSanjay Gandhi’s ‘biological child’. It further says that this matter has come to light recently.We are not sure the Gandhi parivar is aware of this new family member. But unless the family acknowledges Ms Singh’s claims we can’t act on her objections to Indu Sarkar.”