The Kashmir Files, a film about genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, was released in theatres on Friday (March 11). Multiple attempts were made to sabotage the film.
The Kashmir Files, a film by director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri about the genocide of the Kashmiri Pandits, was released worldwide in theatres on Friday (March 11).
But, before the movie could hit the theatres, it faced multiple sabotage attempts.
Even before the movie was released, a section of media started calling it a propaganda movie. Even before the trailer of the movie was released, NDTV had started calling it a ‘propaganda movie’.
What surprise many was the silence of the Bollywood bigwigs about the sabotage attempt at The Kashmir Files. Stars like Amitabh Bachchan, Sharukh Khan, Aamir Khan, Salman Khan, Ranveer Singh, Akshay Kumar, Deepika Padukone and others remined silent.
Multiple propagandist YouTubers had started criticising the movie based on trailer and called it a propaganda movie. Propagandist YouTuber Dhruv Rathee hinted in a post that this was not the right way to talk about a genocide.
Reviewing the movie, Film Companion, a platform run by wife of director Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Anupama Chopra, said “The Kashmir Files is a defensive and dishonest drive into the past.”
It added “The filmmaking in The Kashmir Files is exploitative. None of it stems from a genuine space of understanding or curiosity.”
Commenting on the review, director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri said, “I think every victim of Kashmir Genocide, every Kashmiri Pandit, every Indian & truth seeker must read this brilliant review by Anupama Chopra’s company, who herself is a Kashmiri Hindu’s wife. Only she could have done this great service to 4000 murdered Kashmiri Hindus. Take a bow, ma’am.”
Executive Editor of TV9 Aditya Raj Kaul called the Film Companion’s review ‘dishonest and flawed’. In a Twitter post, he said, “Shocked to see such dishonest, flawed review of The Kashmir Files. If the ethnic cleaning of Kashmiri Hindus is narrated without any balancing act, it becomes a “vengeful act”. Why uncomfortable with calling out Islamist terror – the root cause of exodus?”
The Congress party went to the extent of putting out a series of tweets tacitly denying the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits. After massive protest, it deleted the posts.
Many state governments including Haryana, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh have declared the movie tax free. Demands are growing in other states too to make the movie tax free. Opposing it in Maharashtra, Shiv Sena MP (Rajya Sabha) Priyanka Chaturvedi said, “I fail to understand why are the filmmakers seeking state tax waiver when GST can be waived for a movie of national interest. Political convenience? Also, if the movie is for larger public good, shouldn’t the makers consider free streaming rather than make money of someone’s pain?”
Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra ordered the state DGP to grant one day special leave for all the police personnel in the state for watching the movie The Kashmir Files.
