Who Is Usha Mehta? Indian Freedom Fighter Whose Biopic Is In The Works

Who Is Usha Mehta: She was an Indian freedom fighter remembered for organizing the Congress Radio which functioned for few months during the Quit India Movement of 1942. As per reports, a biopic on her is on the cards. Director Ketan Mehta, Usha Mehta's nephew, wants to direct it. He has narrowed down his choices to Taapsee Pannu and Bhumi Pednekar for the lead role. However, the casting will be locked by November only.

Here's what you need to know about Usha Mehta.

• Usha Mehta was born on March 25 in the year 1920.
• She hailed from Saras, a village in the western state of Gujarat. Her mother Gheliben Mehta was a homemaker and father Hariprasad Mehta was a district-level judge under the British Raj. Her family members had been actively involved in India's independent struggle.
• She was highly inspired by Gandhian principles. She was just 8-years-old when she participated in a protest march against the Simon Commission. She wanted to contrite more to the freedom struggle but her father was a government servant and so she was dissuaded to do so. Post her father's retirement, she started playing a prominent role in the struggle.
• The Secret Congress Radio that she started conveyed messages from Gandhi and other leaders during the Quit India Movement. Through that radio, she passed along information from the All India Congress Committee and delivered messages from across the country. She was only 22 at that time and was studying political science at Wilson College in Bombay.
• “When the newspapers dared not touch upon these subjects under the prevailing conditions, it was only the Congress Radio which could defy the orders and tell the people what actually was happening,” Mehta said in an interview, as per sources.
• In 1998, she was conferred with Padma Vibhushan.

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