On Samvidhaan Hatya Diwas, June 25, a reminder of the Indian Constitution’s suspension during the Emergency, we sat down with filmmaker Sudhir Mishra at his Versova bungalow to discuss his Sony Liv series, Summer of ’76. It’s supposed to be an adaptation of a political memoir by his grandfather Dwarka Prasad Mishra, former CM of Madhya Pradesh — Living an Era. 

He clears the air right away saying “it’s not just based on my grandfather’s book”. Then what is it? For Mishra, it’s a retelling of a time that’s never studied with the clarity it deserves. “I have an intimate understanding of the power politics of the Congress and in a very odd way, the politics of India in general. My grandfather had been active since 1939. I’m not totally in agreement with his politics. I’m also my father’s son. My father’s a mathematician. For me, you know, there’s a hypothesis, and it has to be proved. DP Mishra may have been opposed to or followed another kind of politics, like the socialist movement. There was someone called Ramesh Dixit, one of the students who was arrested. So, we took the rights to his life. He’s very close to me, almost like an elder brother. There’s this person called Pushpesh, who is a writer. He was a professor. So he’s also an activist,” he says. 

Sudhir Mishra in a behind-the-scenes moment with Rajat Kapoor