Kishore Kumar had angered former Prime Minister of India, Mrs. Indira Gandhi, when he refused to sing for the "Emergency Propoganda" during the emergency declared by her, and as a result all songs sung by him were banned by the national media at that time.





can someone have more details of it................

" During the dark days of the Emergency, when the high and the mighty bowed to the dictates of the extra-constitutional authority of Sanjay Gandhi, Kishore Kumar defied it, refusing to participate in a programme in Delhi, supposedly for a government 'cause'. As a retaliatory measure Kishore Kumar was banned on government media like All India Radio and Doordarshan from May 4, 1976. The government even tried to freeze the sale of his records. Kishore Kumar survived the action; that vindictive government didn't. "

Taken from the Article Vox populi by Nalin Shah for Rediff on the Net released on October 14, 1997

What connexion does the request have with this thread?

plz post the request outside the thread!!

Moderator

in every era artists have been targeted by the mean politics.

but art and artist can never be stopped.

Did they ever reconcile....
the Gandhi's and Guru

Please clarify

The person responsible for the banning was the PM's younger son, Sanjay Gandhi, who was not an elected official and had no authentic constitutional powers. Two years after the declaration of Emergency, Mrs. Indira Gandhi called for fresh elections, but was voted out of power. She came to power again in 1980. The same year, however, her son Sanjay was killed in an airplane crash.

Along with the Congress party's later "remorse" about the Emergency, then Minister for Information and Broadcasting, Sri V. C. Shukla, regretfully admitted they had erred in banning Kishore-da.

In the meantime, after the Emergency had been revoked, his songs had returned to the broadcasts of All India Radio. Since Sanjay Gandhi had died, I guess there was no occasion for reconcilement. I imagine Kishore-da would not have cared. His stand had been amply vindicated --- on the air waves as well as the electoral booths!

Yes his songs were banned for a short time and belive me no one was happy about that. Infact it made KK more popular, not that he was not.

Rafisaab was amongst the ones who expressed his dissatisfaction on KK's ban.

Not an important thing, this, but just wanted to share it here...

I was in school then, and a HUGE kishore-fan. Would listen to the radio and watch b&w TV (those were the days when most houses did not have a TV), looking out for KK songs. Didn't even have a tape-recorder.

There used to be Chhayageet on TV every thursday evening at 8:15.

We were all at a friend's house watching Chhayageet, ruing the absence of Kishore Kumar's songs. The ban had been in place for a long time.

The second-last song was a pleasant shock!!! Dev Anand angled his way from the corner of the TV frame and started 'dekho o deewano tum yeh kaam na karo' from Hare Ram Hare Krishna - and we erupted in joy.
The song, which was never on my hot-list, remains a firm favourite since that day.

There were no KK songs on the radio that night, though....

The next morning, on Vividh Bharti, I switched on 'Raswanti' at 7:05 AM (my parents were highly disapproving as it was time to leave for school in 10 more minutes).
The first song confirmed the fact that the ban was gone - KK's fresh voice came joyously out of the radio - 'Rangoli sajaao re, rangoli sajaao.."

I was the happiest boy walking to school that day...

Was that not in South Africa somewhere? The story I had heard from my elders was that he sang in African country somewhere during the emergency and that is why his songs were banned.

Can someone give me the year that the ban was lifted? If possible, the month would be nice too!