Did you know Ned Stark died? As a Game of Thrones fan, this piece of information would feel a little urmm…stale, just like the timing of Madhur Bhandarkar’s next film Indu Sarkar. Based on the events during the Emergency period between 1975 and 1977, the movie comes in as a surprise from the filmmaker whose previous films have mostly been about the glamour industry or social issues.

But this one appears to be a direct assault on the current parliamentary opposition, the Congress party.

Don’t believe us? Check out the trailer. The cheap shots taken at the Nehru-Gandhi clan, along with the obviously pro-Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Anupam Kher, should be enough to convince any rational-headed person.

And not that it’s a journalistic investigation like Rana Ayyub’s 2016 book Gujarat Files that was published around 14 years after the bloody riots in the state. So why, after all these years, is Madhur Bhandarkar suddenly interested in the emergency or portraying the already-sidelined Congress party in a bad light?

Apart from the dubious 2017 presentation of the film, one is also forced to suspect its factual accuracy. No doubt the Emergency was a dark period for the country, but certain records of the period also come with a propaganda attached to them.

Bhandarkar has tried to come out clean by claiming that the film is ‘70 per cent fiction and 30 per cent realism,’ and it’s definitely ‘not sponsored.’

So is it no coincidence that the government-backed censor board, which is readily asking filmmakers to bring NOCs for films on real life personalities, is ready to offer leniency to Bhandarkar? The plausible explanation being given is that he has taken no names of politicians in the film. Like seriously?

And given the recent rise of pro-government sycophancy in the industry, we all know that this film’s recipe has a heavy dose of saffron in it.

The Narendra Modi fan club in Bollywood already comprises stalwarts like Amitabh Bachchan, who is the face of the Goods and Services (GST) campaign of Arun Jaitley’s finance ministry. The actor has also been a part of Prime Minister’s previous campaigns as the Gujarat Chief Minister.

Grapevine also has it that the likes of Akshay Kumar are in the ‘good books’ as well, following in the footsteps of Salman Khan, Paresh Rawal, Hema Malini and many others.

Then there is aforementioned Mr Kher, who will even be the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in The Accidental Prime Minister.

The film will be based on a book by Singh’s media adviser Sanjaya Baru, who had controversially depicted his former boss as not being in full control of his own cabinet and being subservient to Congress President Sonia Gandhi.

When prodded about the film, Kher recently said that ‘it’s too early to talk about it,’ but also added slyly that it’s ‘not a silent film.’

It’s worth mentioning that the veteran actor’s wife Kirron Kher is a sitting member of parliament from the BJP, which sum it up. And that’s exactly the road even Madhur Bhandarkar aspires go down with Indu Sarkar.