Vidya Balan will play Indira Gandhi in an adaptation of journalist Sagarika Ghose’s book Indira: India’s Most Powerful Prime Minister. Ghose announced that a deal has been signed between her publisher, Juggernaut Books, and Vidya Balan through Twitter on Wednesday.
Balan said in a statement that she was happy to have acquired the book rights because she has always wanted to play Indira Gandhi. “I haven’t decided yet whether it should be a film or a web series, but that will take a while anyway,” Balan said.
Just signed the contract for movie rights for my book "Indira, India's Most Powerful PM" with @vidya_balan and @roykapurfilms! Utterly elated!! Look fwd to seeing INDIRA on screen! @juggernautbooks #IndiraTheMovie
— Sagarika Ghose (@sagarikaghose) January 10, 2018
Ghose’s book explores such issues as the reasons behind the Emergency in 1975, Gandhi’s failed marriage, her turbulent relationship with her son Sanjay, and her numerous political battles.
Gandhi has been played twice by Supriya Vinod, in Jabbar Patel’s Yashwantrao Chavan (2014) and Madhur Bhandarkar’s Indu Sarkar (2017).