According to the credits listed at the end of the first look of Kangana Ranaut's magnum opus Emergency, Ranaut is credited for story and direction in addition to being the film's star performer. How's that for multitasking? While Ranaut as Indira Gandhi has a tic that makes it seem as though her strings are being yanked by a mildly-epileptic puppetmaster, the resemblance between the Indian prime minister and Ranaut is impressive.
In the minute-long teaser, Emergency shows us a Gandhi who is not intimidated by the duo of President Richard Nixon and the formidable diplomat Henry Kissinger. "America ke president ko keh dena ke mujhe mere daftar mein sab madam nahin, 'sir' kehte hain (Tell the American president that my office calls me 'sir', not 'madam')," she says sternly. To bring you down from the high you may be feeling after seeing Gandhi deliver this pointed put-down, the clip ends with the audio of Ranaut as Gandhi announcing the Emergency and saying there's no need to panic.
This is Ranaut's second directorial project after her 2019 period drama Manikarnika. According to The Quint, the actress announced last year that after a year of working on Emergency, she'd realised that no one can direct it better than her. Ritesh Shah, who has writing credits on films like Pink and Sardar Udham, has written the screenplay for the film. Produced by Ranaut and Renu Pitti, under the actress' production banner Manikarnika Films, Emergency is yet to announce a release date.