might be tarnished and jeopardise her career, Aarti does not want to step forward. But at last when the opposite party holds a rally to defame Aarti Devi and insults her, She reaches there and explains to the public and voters that she left her husband and family to serve the people of this country. People believe her and are really impressed by her speech and sacrifice. J.K. also reaches there and supports her, she is very happy and leaves the spot. She wins the election and lives happily ever after Cast Sanjeev Kumar as J. K. Suchitra Sen as Aarti Devi Om Shivpuri as Chandrasen Manmohan as S. K. Agarwal A. K. Hangal as Brinda Kaka Kamaldeep as Chowdhary C. S. Dubey as Gurusaran Om Prakash as Lallu Lal, Campaign Manager Rehman as K. Bose Master Bittoo as Aarti' daughter Manu Production Development Gulzar said the film had no semblance with the personal life of then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi. He wanted to make film about modern Indian politician, and so he modelled the character on Indira Gandhi and to some extent on noted parliamentarian from Bihar, Tarkeshwari Sinha. Script An early version of the film's story was written by veteran screenwriter Sachin Bhowmick, however it did not go well with Gulzar. He had an idea of an estranged couple meeting in a hotel after years, and started developing it. Hindi writer Kamleshwar joined as the writing crew, as the film started shooting. He later went on to write a full-fledged novel, Kali Aandhi (Black Storm), which is quite different from the film. Subsequently, the film was written simultaneously along with another Gulzar film, Mausam (1975), which was also written by Bhushan Banmali and Gulzar. Along with Khushboo, Aandhi also released in the same year; 1975 proving to be the most prolific for director-screenwriter Gulzar's career. Casting The lead role of Aarti Devi was offered to actress Vyjayanthimala, who refused as she was fazed by physical resemblance of her character with Indira Gandhi. Later in 2011, she recounted Aandhi as one of few films she regretted not doing besides Mr and Mrs 55 (1955) by Guru Dutt and Bandini (1963) by Bimal Roy, "I admired Indiraji (Gandhi) so much so that I got cold feet when the role was offered to me." In the early 1960s, director Gulzar had approached Suchitra Sen, with screenplay for a film to be