Woman Claiming To Be Sanjay Gandhi’s Daughter Slams New Film

New Delhi: A controversy was stoked on Monday after a woman, Priya Singh Paul, claimed that she is the daughter of Sanjay Gandhi and grand-daughter of former prime minister Indira Gandhi. She said that upcoming film Indu Sarkar shows her late father and grandmother in bad light.

She has moved the Tis Hazari Court here alleging that her adoption papers were "forged" and that a "misrepresentation" in the film prompted her to "break her silence". Paul, who claimed she is aged 48, had said she has moved the Central Board of Film Certification(CBFC) against clearing the film. Sanjay Gandhi, the younger son of Indira Gandhi, died in an air crash in 1980.

"The filmmakers have admitted that the film is 30 per cent facts and 70 per cent fiction. But these so-called facts lead to a fiction. This has been cleverly done to influence a reasonable viewer to make an obvious connect," she said.

She has moved the Tis Hazari Court here alleging that her adoption papers were “forged” and that a “misrepresentation” in the film prompted her to “break her silence

Paul said she was "not hankering for media attention" and decided to come out as a wrong impression was being created about her "father".

One Goswami Sushilji Maharaj, who claims to have been a "friend" of Sanjay Gandhi, has filed an affidavit in the court, claiming that he was "well aware" that Sanjay had a "girl child", born before his marriage. Paul said she had been adopted and claimed she was told about Sanjay Gandhi being her biological father after she grew up.

Indu Sarkar, which is set against the backdrop of Emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975, has courted trouble in the recent weeks with Congress leader Sanjay Nirupam demanding that it be separately screened for him. However, filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar has turned down Nirupam's request, saying he will not hold any separate screening for the Congress or any other political party.

The movie Indu Sarkar is due to be released on July 28.