BJP MP and actor Kangana Ranaut sought police protection on Tuesday after a video surfaced on social media showing men threatening her over the release of her upcoming film, Emergency. In the film, Ranaut portrays former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The threats emerged following the release of the film’s trailer.
The video features six men seated in a circle, two of them are dressed like Nihang Sikhs. One of the men warns that if the film is released, the Sikh community will strongly oppose it. “Your movie will be received with chappals,” he states.
Another man, identified as Vicky Thomas Singh, a social media influencer on X who regularly shares pro-Bhindranwale content, delivers a more direct threat: “If in the movie he (Khalistani terrorist Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale) is portrayed as a terrorist, remember what happened to the person (Indira Gandhi) whose movie you are doing.”
Singh also references Indira Gandhi’s bodyguards, Satwant Singh and Beant Singh, who assassinated her in 1984, saying, “Who were Satwant Singh and Beant Singh? We will offer our heads, but those who can offer heads can also chop them off.”
Ranaut shared the video on social media, tagging the Director Generals of Police in Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, and Punjab, requesting their intervention: “Please look into this,” she wrote on X.
Several groups, including the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, have called for the film’s release to be halted, arguing that it promotes an “anti-Sikh” narrative and misrepresents Sikhs as “separatists.”
Sri Akal Takht Sahib has also demanded a ban on the film, which she has also directed the film.
Independent MP from Faridkot and son of Indira Gandhi’s assassin Beant Singh, Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa, has also called for a ban on the film, alleging it portrays Sikhs unfairly and could incite hatred towards the community.
An Australia-based Sikh council has echoed these concerns, describing “Emergency” as propaganda that misrepresents historical events and disrespects Sikh martyrs. The council has warned that the film could stir unrest within the Sikh Punjabi community and among non-Hindutva supporters in Australia.
Scheduled for release on September 6, the film’s trailer, released on August 14, features Jarnail Singh Bhindranwale, a militant Sikh preacher. Sikh radical groups are particularly opposed to this depiction.
Sarabjeet Singh Khalsa argued, “If Sikhs are filmed as separatists or terrorists in this film, then it is a deep conspiracy. This film is a psychological attack to create hatred towards Sikhs among other communities. The government should ban this movie.”
The Mandi MP stirred a massive row recently after she alleged that “rapes and murders” were committed during the farmer agitation to protest the now-withdrawn farm laws.
In an interview with a Hindi news platform, Ranaut suggested that the violence seen in Bangladesh could have occurred in India under a “government without a vision”.
“Look at farmer protests where people were killed and rapes were committed. When the pro-people farmer laws were repealed, people across the country were astonished. Even the farmers would not have imagined that the bills would be repealed but they (farmers) are sitting (on protests) now. It is a big plan: as in Bangladesh, foreign powers from China and the US are working for it,” the actor-politician said.
Her party has reprimanded her and clarified that her remark does not represent the party’s views. Distancing itself from it, the BJP said, “The statement made by BJP MP Ms. Kangana Ranaut in the context of the farmers’ protest does not reflect the party’s stance. The Bharatiya Janata Party expresses its disagreement with her remarks.”
