Author sues Kangana Ranaut's company for claiming ‘Emergency' film based on her book

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22-04-2025

Journalist and author Coomi Kapoor has filed a lawsuit against actor-turned-politician Kangana Ranaut's Manikarnika Films Private Limited and streaming platform Netflix, accusing them of damaging her reputation by claiming that the Hindi language film Emergency was based on her book The Emergency: A Personal History, reported The Print on Tuesday.
Kapoor has alleged that the film contains ' glaring historical inaccuracies ' that contradict her work, mislead viewers and damage her credibility, according to Hindustan Times.
The film is based on the Emergency imposed by former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi's government in 1975. It was released in the theatres on January 17.
Emergency started streaming on Netflix on March 17 and carries a disclaimer claiming that it is based on Kapoor's The Emergency and Jaiyanth Vasanth Sinha's Priyadarshini.
In addition to starring in it, Ranaut, a Bharatiya Janata Party MP from Himachal Pradesh's Mandi, is also the writer and director of the film. She co-produced it through her company Manikarnika Films.
'Even after two legal notices, the film still shows this disclaimer,' the author told The Telegraph.
Kapoor told The Print on Tuesday that she had called Ranaut's brother, Aksht Ranaut, who is the producer of the film. 'But have received no response till this morning,' she said.
'This could have easily been avoided if the script writer had even done a cursory reading of the book in which the accurate data is given,' she said.
Kapoor said that an agreement was signed between her, Manikarnika Films and Penguin, the publisher of The Emergency, after Aksht Ranaut met her in 2021. She claimed that the agreement contained two clauses that had been breached.
According to Kapoor, the contract mentioned that while the producers have full artistic license in making the film, 'nothing should be modified that was not in consonance with historical facts on the subject, which are in the public domain'.
The contract also mentioned that Kapoor's name and book should not be used for promoting the film without her written consent, she said.
'I had specifically told them to not use the term 'based on' but they still did,' Kapoor was quoted as saying by The Print.
She also said that she was never shown the script of the film and discovered after it was released on Netflix on March 17 that it carried a disclaimer claiming to be based on her book.
'When the film was released I checked the media articles and they all said 'inspired' so I was fine,' said Kapoor. 'But, when I recently watched it on Netflix, it read 'based on' towards the end. In order to give credibility to their work, they used my name.'