NEW DELHI, July 27 (Xinhua) -- India's Supreme Court Thursday gave the go-ahead for the release of a controversial Bollywood movie on the state of emergency imposed in 1975 by the country's first woman Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.
"Indu Sarkar" will now be released in theaters across the country Friday.
The apex court dismissed a petition to stop the movie's release, filed by a woman who claims to be the biological daughter of Indira Gandhi's son Sanjay, paving the way for its release on scheduled date.
"Exhibition of movie is an artistic expression within the parameters of law and there is no justification to curtail the release of the movie," the court ruled.
To the petitioner Priya Singh Paul's allegations that the the film is "full of concocted facts and is totally derogatory," the judges said: "A film's script has to have a little dram and exaggeration."
The film's director Madhur Bhandarkar has expressed happiness. "It is absolutely a great relief. Welcome that the court held that artistic freedom cannot be curbed," he told the media.
The movie deals with the controversial state of emergency imposed by Indira Gandhi in 1975.
During that time, elections were suspended and civil rights and media freedom were curbed. One of the measures introduced during the state of emergency was mass sterilization to limit population growth.
