Emergency (2025 film)

Emergency is a 2025 Indian Hindi-language historical biographical drama film directed and co-produced by Kangana Ranaut, based on a screenplay by Ritesh Shah and story written by Ranaut. Based on the Indian Emergency, it stars Ranaut as former Prime Minister of India, Indira Gandhi.
Principal photography commenced in July 2022 and ended in January 2023. It was originally scheduled for release on 6 September 2024, but was postponed due to pending certification of the Central Board of Film Certification. Later, it was cleared by CBFC and released on 17 January 2025 to mixed-to-negative reviews from film critics. The film also emerged as a box-office flop.
After India's independence, Indira Gandhi is told about the war of Indrapastha and the struggle for power in the potrayal of modern-day India. Following this, we see a quick montage of her actions to protect Assam and rising to the top of the Congress. At first, she is wanted to be used as a puppet, however, after she goes against the Syndicate's wishes to stop Operation Searchlight and negotiate with big world powers, with the support of Vajpayee's opposition, she weakens inner-party opposition.
Her victory in the Indo-Pakistani War of 1971 leads to an "Indira wave" where she is considered the Durga of India and has lots of popular support. However, she would later face losses when a court case in Allahbad forces her to resign her post. She, paranoid by the opposition's tactics against her and her party, decides to call an Emergency.
At first, she attempts to weaken the Opposition, but quickly becomes obsessed and negatively impacts the nation. Throughout the era, we see that her son Sanjay Gandhi taking power from her hands and quickly forcing a vasectomy programme and bulldozing of slum houses, killing one. On 15 Aug, 1975, she attempts to break Emergency in a speech, but the killings of Emergency leader of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rehman makes her more paranoid and she doesn't mention it. Finally however, after consulting her spiritual advisor, and seeing the damage caused by her and her son, she lifts it in 1977 and calls elections. Her furious son starts to despise her "political suicide," while once-imprisoned leaders of the Janata (People) Party take their official oath.
After this, she moves into a regular home, but gets arrested, possibly due to corruption. Without resisting, and wishing to repent her actions, she goes in and breaks down in prison after protesters wish her death and other bad things. She realizes the extent of damage she caused. Later, farmers struck with a massive famine for two years appeal to her, crying. They attempted to sell produce after two years but gangsters immolate them. She decides to go riding an elephant to the remote village and promises to always help them with their food problems. This immediately puts her in a favourable view again, as the Janata Party never helped the village despite them giving votes, while the losing Indira Gandhi did help them. And because of this, she is given back the Prime Ministership
The first two important things of her role is firstly, her son dying attempting to do an aerobatic stunt, and people celebrating in the streets due to his death. She breaks down into tears realizing that her own son was not a good person. She decides to try to do everything to make it up. Also, a radical Brindhawale rises to power in Panjab and takes arms at the Golden Temple. She wishes to enter, stating that no evil person is immune for any reason. Her PA says that this may cause her Sikh bodyguards to hurt her and that they should be dismissed, but she objects; saying that no side can be alienated due to terrorism. Finally, on 31 October, Beant and Satwant Singh, her bodyguards shoot and kill her. The movie ends with her last speech the day before in Odisha, where she states that she is not supposed to rule over India but she is made to serve India.
The film features four songs composed by G. V. Prakash Kumar and one song composed by Arko. The film score is composed by Sanchit Balhara and Ankit Balhara. Lyrics are written by Manoj Muntashir. The first single titled "Singhasan Khali Karo" was released on 26 August 2024.
Before its release, Emergency faced delays due to concerns raised by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
The board demanded modifications to certain scenes, resulting in the postponement of the film's release. The CBFC granted a U/A certificate on the condition that the filmmakers implement specific cuts and provide factual sources for controversial historical claims depicted in the movie.
Initially announced to release in October–November 2023, the film was re-scheduled to release on 14 June 2024. It was again postponed due to the Lok Sabha elections, scheduled to be released on 6 September 2024. On 30 August, Ranaut claimed the film was being denied a certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification, possibly due to external pressures. The Government of Telangana has also considered a ban on the film due to objections raised by the Sikh community members. On 17 October, Ranaut shared on social media that the film had been finally cleared by the CBFC, and the film was released on 17 January 2025. On 11 January 2025, the inaugural special screening of the film took place in Nagpur, India. The event was attended by Union Minister Nitin Gadkari and hosted by Kangana Ranaut and Anupam Kher.
Emergency has been banned in Bangladesh due to escalating political tensions between India and Bangladesh. Officials have indicated that the decision was more related to the current diplomatic dynamics between the two nations rather than the film's content.
The film has began streaming on Netflix from 17 March 2025.
The film earned ₹2 crore on its opening day, aided by Cinema Lovers Day, when tickets were available at cheaper price. It made an additional ₹3 crore on the second day, and ₹3.7 crore on the third, for an opening weekend collection of ₹8.7 crore.
As of 8 February 2025, Emergency has grossed ₹19.67 crore (US$2.3 million) in India, with a further ₹2.08 crore (US$240,000) overseas, for a worldwide total of ₹21.75 crore (US$2.5 million), emerging a box-office bomb.
Dhaval Roy of Times of India gave the film 2.5 stars (out of 5) and wrote, "Emergency is hindered by its overly dramatised approach and one-dimensional portrayals. The lack of narrative fluidity and context undermines the attempt to narrate an important chapter in Indian history." Saibal Chatterjee of NDTV called it a "monumental muddle" that demonstrates how not to make a biographical drama, giving the film a rating of 1.5 out of 5 and writing, "The film wades through the early years of Indira Gandhi's life pretty much in the manner that it treats the rest of it—hastily, superficially, and risibly." Shubhra Gupta of The Indian Express deemed it as a "confused" biopic that is weak in craft, giving the film 1.5 stars (out of 5) and writing, "For the most part, Emergency is more a scattershot caricature of time, place, and people, riddled with tacky computer graphics." Nandini Ramnath of Scroll deemed it as "parodic" biopic and wrote, "Ranaut's portrayal of Indira Gandhi itself raises the suspicion that the actor who has previously played iconic women leaders—the Queen of Jhansi, J. Jayalalithaa—is parodying the historical biopic this time round." Angel Rani of Deccan Herald gave the film 2 stars (out of 5) and dismissed Ranaut's portrayal of Indira Gandhi as "meek mimicry".
Deven Sharma of Filmfare gave the film three out of five, writing, "The film is well-directed by Kangana Ranaut, who, thanks to great makeup and prosthetics, looks exactly like Indira Gandhi in the first frame but later starts looking like herself." Mayank Shekhar of Mid-Day gave the film 3 stars, calling it a "pretty solid biopic of Indira Gandhi—packed with historical events, and human empathy". Lachmi Deb Roy of Firstpost gave the film three out of five, calling the film "a bold cinematic retelling of one of the most controversial periods in Indian politics." She further wrote, "Kangana Ranaut shines as a director and a craftsman. Not just Kangana, Mahima Chaudhury, Anupam Kher, Shreyas Talpade and Vishak Nair did justice to their roles in Emergency."
Rahul Desai of The Hollywood Reporter India wrote, "Emergency—which lacks both skill and self-awareness—is yet another brick in the wall of modern Bollywood." Sana Farzeen of India Today rated it 2.5 out of 5 and called it a rushed crash course on Indira Gandhi's life that struggles to delve deeply into key historical events and character motivations. Utkarsh Mishra of Rediff gave the film a rating of 1 out of 5 and panned Ranaut's portrayal, noting that her character is almost always teary-eyed and lacking in confidence with voice modulation that falls flat. Anuj Kumar of The Hindu wrote, "Marked by uneven storytelling, the biopic comes across more as a selective recreation of archival material to serve today's political narrative than a compelling take on the darkest chapter of Indian democracy." Lekha Menon of Khaleej Times gave the film 2 stars (out of 5) noting, "The film feels like a trying-to-be-a-serious school play rather than a refined, complex portrayal of power and corruption."
The film has faced significant backlash from Sikh organizations, particularly the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), which accuses it of distorting historical events related to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots and defaming the Sikh community. In response to these protests, several theaters in the Indian state of Punjab chose not to screen the film. Internationally, the film faced protests in the United Kingdom, where Sikh groups organized demonstrations against Emergency, disrupting its screening at some cinemas during its opening weekend. The Sikh Press Association stated that the film was seen as anti-Sikh, leading to canceled screenings in cities such as Birmingham and Wolverhampton.