Lara Dutta In Bell Bottom To Kangana Ranaut In Emergency; A Look At Actresses Who Have Portrayed Former Indian PM Indira Gandhi On Screen

India’s first and only female Prime Minister till date, Indira Gandhi, has been a powerful female figure to look up to for women all across the country ever since she took to office in 1966. Her political journey and the policies she enabled have been marred with controversy all the way till she was assassinated in 1984.

In popular culture, up until quite recently, filmmakers generally used to avoid the depiction of the political leader in media. Usually, it was back-shots, silhouettes or voice overs that were used to give impressions of her character. But in recent years, the taboo surrounding her depiction has begun to dissipate and yesterday with the unveiling of the trailer of Akshay Kumar’s Bell Bottom, Lara Dutta became the latest entry to join the list of actresses to portray Indira Gandhi in popular media. Let’s take a look at other actresses who either already have or are going to bring the political leader’s character to life on screen.

Lara Dutta

Yesterday, when the trailer of Akshay Kumar’s Bell Bottom was released, it took people some time to realise that it was indeed Lara who was portraying the character of Gandhi. Her look has been completely transformed for the film and it will be a portrayal to watch out for.

Kangana Ranaut

Kangana is currently working on Gandhi’s biographical film titled Emergency, where she will not only play Gandhi’s character but also direct the film. On June 23, the actress informed through Instagram that the work on the film has started with body and face scans and casts to get the look right.

Avantika Akerekar



In the Nawazuddin Siddiqui and Amrita Rao-starrer 2019 film Thackeray, which was a biopic on the Shiv Sena founder and former leader Bal Thackeray, it was actress Avantika who portrayed the role of the former PM of India.

Sarita Choudhury


In Deepa Mehta’s 2012 film Midnight’s Children, an adaptation of the Salman Rushdie book by the same name, the English actress took on the role of Gandhi on screen.

Supriya Vinod

Supriya is the only actress on this list who has brought the character of Gandhi on screen twice in her career. She first played the role in Madhur Bhandarkar’s Kirti Kulhari-fronted Indu Sarkar, followed by a cameo appearance as Gandhi in the Telugu biographical film on the real-life and political career of N.T.Rama Rao, NTR: Kathanayakudu and its sequel NTR: Mahanayakudu.

Kishori Shahane


In the 2019 biopic of the current Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi, titled PM Narendra Modi, it was Marathi actress Kishori who played Gandhi’s character. Kishori is also a popular name in the Hindi TV industry and has a lot of Hindi films to her credit as well.