Amrit Nahata

Amrit Nahata Biography

Amrit Nahata was an Indian politician and filmmaker. He was elected to Lok Sabha twice as the representative of the Indian National Congress. But he left Congress after the Emergency, and went on to direct the controversial film Kissa Kursi Ka in 1977. The movie was banned by the Indian Government during the Emergency period and all prints were confiscated. It was a humorous political satire and though Amrit declared that all the characters were purely fictional and Emergency period had already started. As a result, all the prints of the movie which were submitted to censor board were picked up, later brought to Maruti factory in Gurgaon, where they were burned. Its enquiry further resulted in findings that Sanjay Gandhi along with V. C. Shukla was guilt of burning the negative of the movie. Both Sanjay Gandhi and Shukla were sentenced to two year jail term imprisonment and Gandhi was denied bail.

Nahata was born in Jodhpur, Rajasthan on 16 May 1928. He completed graduation from Jaswant College, Jodhpur and started his career as an educator and translator. He translated 12 English books of world famous authors to Hindi. Later he joined Indian National congress and was elected to fourth and fifth Lok Sabha from Barmer constituency. Thus he served as a parliamentarian from 1967-1977, a period of 10 years. However he left congress during Emergency period, and directed one movie, Kissa Kursi ka. It indirectly criticized Congress government and Sanjay Gandhi and told about auto-manufacturing plans about Gandhi, which irritated him. Later the movie was banned and whole prints were burned. Sanjay Gandhi was found guilty as well.

Nahata has produced and directed only 3 films in his career - Sant Gyaneshwar (1965), Raton Ka Raja (1967) and Kissa Kursi ka, which was never released. Nahata never made another film. He died on 26 April 2001 at Delhi, aged 74.

Published: N/A

Updated: March 05, 2014