Amitabh once faced media boycott post emergency situation in the country
Amitabh Bachchan, post emergency faced a media boycott and it’s a well known fact in the industry.
The Legendary actor often hailed as the ‘Shahenshah’ of Bollywood, once faced a strange phase in his career when his name was deliberately erased from the pages of film magazines and newspapers. At the peak of his stardom, when his films were drawing crowds to theatres and his face was plastered across billboards, Bachchan found himself at the centre of a quiet but significant boycott by the media
a fallout from the political storm of the Emergency imposed amid June 25, 1975, and March 21, 1977.
Bachchan’s journey in the film industry began under the shadow of political influence. It is widely believed that his first break in Bollywood came through a personal recommendation from none other than
Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. His mother, Teji Bachchan, shared a close relationship with the Gandhis.
Reportedly, it was Indira Gandhi who wrote a letter to veteran actors Sunil Dutt and Nargis, urging them to help Amitabh find work in the industry. This paved the way for his debut in Saat Hindustani though success didn’t come easily. Bachchan delivered a string of flops before finally emerging a favourite among directors, with hits like Zanjeer and Sholay catapulting him to superstardom.
However, as his career skyrocketed, political undercurrents threatened to derail it. Film critic and writer Bharti S Pradhan, in a recent interview with ANI, revealed that Bachchan became a target of media censorship after the Emergency ended. According to Bharti certain film magazines believed that Bachchan had been involved in the government’s censorship efforts amidst the Emergency. He was accused of “blue-penciling” articles a term used to describe the editing or censoring of content.
This perception led to an informal but effective boycott by some of the most influential film publications of the time.
Bharti recalled that many magazines, convinced that Bachchan and VC Shukla, then Minister of Information and Broadcasting, were working in tandem with the ruling Congress party, stopped mentioning his name altogether. “There was a belief that Amitabh was part of the Congress machinery.
As a result, editors began to omit his name from their publications.
The erasure was both blatant and strategic.
If Bachchan’s name appeared alongside a co-star like Hema Malini in a film credit, editors would replace his name with a comma. “His name couldn’t appear in print, so they would simply leave a gap or a comma where his name was supposed to be,” Bharti explained.
Even photographs were affected. Bachchan became conscious of the situation and would deliberately stand at the extreme right or left in group photos, knowing that editors might crop him out or exclude his name from captions. Pradhan shared that Bachchan himself was aware of the media’s cold shoulder. “He told her once, ‘that he stands on the side so that it’s easier for the editors,'” she revealed.
Notqith⁴³the backlash, Bachchan endured and eventually reclaimed his place in the industry. The phase marked a rare instance where political tensions spilled into Bollywood, highlighting the fragile relationship between cinema and politics.
News Edit KV Raman
