vivek agnihotri

‘The Kashmir Files’ Recognised Pain of Kashmiri Pandits: Director

Director Vivek Agnihotri’s film ‘The Kashmir Files’ recently won the prestigious Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration at the 69th National Film Awards.

Reacting to the news, Vivek told ANI, “This is a moment of pride. I am happy that the pain of the Kashmiri Pandit community is being recognized by the country.”

Helmed by Vivek Agnihotri, the film starred Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Mithun Chakraborty and Darshan Kumaar in the lead roles.

Apart from this, actor Pallavi Joshi also bagged the Best Supporting Actress at the 69th National Awards for her performance in the film.

The Kashmir Files,’ on the life of Kashmiri Pandits during the 1990 Kashmir insurgency, is based on first-generation video interviews of victims of the Kashmiri massacre, making an account of their pain, suffering, struggle and trauma.

The movie, which was originally released on March 11, 2022, made it to the Oscars 2023 reminder list when the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) released the list of 301 feature films eligible for this year’s Oscars.

Meanwhile, Vivek recently unveiled the trailer of his next film ‘The Vaccine War’ which stars Nana Patekar, Pallavi Joshi and Anupam Kher in the lead roles.

The trailer narrates the tale of the triumph of scientists and 130 crore Indian citizens who fought the battle against COVID-19. It gave a glimpse of the activities of scientists involved with the BBV152 vaccine, also known as Covaxin, developed by Bharat Biotech in partnership with the Indian Council of Medical Research – National Institute of Virology.

The film is all set to hit the theatres on September 28. (ANI)

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Nargis Dutt National Film Award Defiled

A National Film Award Defiled

In that summer of Rajasthan, actor Sunil Dutt had launched a long journey for love and compassion, and against hate politics: Sadbhavna ke Sipahi. Earlier, he had held two historic peace marches. One, against nuclear war and weapons of mass destruction in Japan, while remembering and paying tributes to the dead in Hiroshima and Nagasaki; and a long march from Bombay to Amritsar, with an outpouring of support from the locals near the lanes of the Golden Temple in Amritsar.

Even in Rajasthan, he was greeted with great admiration and people came on the streets and their balconies to cheer him up. In the lovely ‘Pink Market’ of Jaipur, the crowd was unprecedented. Some came to have a glimpse of the father of Sanjay Dutt. In nearby Tonk, his public meeting went on till late night.

After the meeting, relaxing at the lawn outside a government guest house, he told this reporter anecdotes about his life and times in Bombay cinema. He told a particularly hilarious story about actor Raj Kumar, while shooting for the BR Chopra blockbuster, Waqt. However, when he would speak about his wife – it would be with deep emotion and enduring respect. He would always call her “Nargisji”. She died of cancer. In the days to come, Sunil Dutt did exemplary work for cancer patients in her memory.

Later, when I filed the report about his yatra in the Jaipur edition of the Hindustan Times, I got an unexpected call one day. The voice was familiar, I had heard it in many films — from Mother India to Sujata and Mujhe Jeene Do. “Arey yaar, tunhe toh meri jaan hi le li!”

I remembered this episode when I heard the announcement of the National Film Awards this year. There was nothing unpredictable about the awards, given the prejudices ruling the mediocre establishment in Delhi, but a streak of uncanny sadness crossed my mind as I saw that Vivek Agnihotri’s crass cinema, The Kashmir Files, has been given the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration.

National integration?

I was again reminded of another recent episode. I had called up a senior journalist in Srinagar asking him for a brief interview on the reopening of cinema halls, since most of them have been shut in Kashmir for a long time now. “Will you please share with our readers your memories of watching films in cinema halls – films like Mother India, Mughal-e-Azam, Bobby and Sholay?”

He was delighted about the interview. “I have too many lovely memories of those days in the cinema halls of Srinagar. I would, indeed, be happy to give you an interview,” he said. However, there was a caveat. His name and picture would not appear. “I don’t want to go to a police station at my age,” he said.

This was a transparent clue to what we, as journalists, have known for a long time now. There has been sustained censorship, clampdown and repression in the Valley, and even an innocuous interview on nostalgia about cinema could land even a well-meaning person in a police station. Recently, another person from Kashmir refused an interview saying that the shadow of the cops hangs all around, and it is better to avoid talking to a media organization. The person was reluctant to even speak on the phone.

Every journalist worth his salt knows the inner state of the media and civil society in Kashmir since the army clampdown and the abrogation of Article 370. Some journalists are languishing in prison, independent media has all but disappeared, while, at least, one prominent editor has chosen to go abroad.

ALSO READ: Kashmir To Kerala – The Propaganda Potpourri

After yet another raid on her newspaper’s office, now in exile, wrote Anuradha Bhasin, Executive Editor of The Kashmir Times, in The New York Times (March 8, 2023): “We work under a cloud of fear. In late 2021, I spoke to a young journalist, Sajad Gul, who was being harassed for his reporting. Fearing arrest, he told me that he slept fully dressed each night and kept his shoes at his bedside — unusual in Kashmir, where shoes are customarily removed before entering a home — in case he had to make a quick getaway. He was arrested in January of last year and remains in custody. Many journalists self-censor or have simply quit. Fearing arrest, some have fled into exile overseas. The Indian government has put at least 20 others on no-fly lists to prevent them from leaving the country.”

When I went to the media centre and the Press Club in Srinagar after the clampdown, amidst the curfew, on empty, eerie streets, and amidst the solitary sadness of a once-bustling Lal Chowk, it was immersed in stark, tragic loneliness. The media was being censored, journalists from outside felt abjectly restrained, mobiles were jammed at the airport itself, and there was no possibility of in-depth ground reporting from the Valley.

In an article called ‘Kashmir: A Beautiful Lake in Barbed Wires’, published in Hardnews, I wrote: “The wind moves with no emotion. There is no joy in the sunny day or in the cool wind. There is no joy in un-freedom in this endless prison of occupation with 8 million prisoners. Mothers, wives, sisters, little kids, young men, lovers, newly-married couples, those mourning the loss of their loved ones. Funerals are just about held, quickly, because mourning in a public space is difficult with so many barricades. Relatives do not even know if there is a death in a family. Most weddings have been postponed, and birthdays come and go without the candles or the songs, or the smiles and the blessings. Between invisible funerals and weddings that did not happen, this is a prison gifted to the people of Kashmir by the government of India….”

I mean The Kashmir Files seems such a brazen pack of lies that even propaganda seems a mild term. Indeed, even in terms of basics of film aesthetics, this is indeed bad cinema. International award-winning filmmaker, Nadav Lapid, jury chief at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI), was absolutely right when he said that he was shocked that this film was at all included in the competition category! At the closing ceremony of the festival, he said, “That felt to us like a propaganda, a vulgar movie, inappropriate for an artistic, competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.”

The whole world knows that that the BJP-RSS and its regime in Delhi have done nothing for the Kashmiri Pandits. Their narrative of injustice and suffering remain yet unfinished. Even after they usurped power in Srinagar, what has the BJP state apparatus done to help the Pandits in Jammu, or those who were tragically compelled to leave their home and hearth, a homeland that they still so intensely love? Nothing. Indeed, their alienation, as that of the people of Ladakh, with China breathing down their neck, has only sharpened in recent times.

The Nargis Dutt award has been given to some of the most outstanding Hindi and regional films in India. They include Shaheed (on the martyrdom of Bhagat Singh), Saat Hindustani, Sardar, Sookha, Tamas, Mr and Mrs Iyer (a deeply nuanced cinematic take after the Gujarat genocide of 2002, made by Aparna Sen), among others. Agnihotri’s movie stands nowhere in terms of brilliance or truthfulness when compared to these films. At best, it only reinforces the hate-cliches, which is the dominant narrative in contemporary India, especially after the summer of 2014.

One of the great classics of world cinema, Garam Hawa, by MS Sathyu, too, won this award. In the last scene, absolutely defeated by the spiral of tragedies which stalks his life and that of his family, the protagonist of the film, the great actor, Balraj Sahni, is going on a rickshaw in his town. On the way, he witnesses a procession with red flags. He quietly gets down, and joins the procession.

I presume, that should be the destiny of most secular, plural and democratic citizens of India, as India approaches the reality of the 2024 countdown. Just join the procession for a new India. Hot, scorching winds are blowing. The nation needs healing and love. And solidarity!

Yousuf Saeed Filmmaker

‘National Integration Award To ‘Kashmir Files’; Irony Just Died Laughing’

Yousuf Saeed, an independent filmmaker and author based in New Delhi, says the BJP is manipulating National Film Awards to push its own political agenda. His views:

Last week, on August 24, The Kashmir Files, a movie directed by Vivek Agnihotri which was summarily panned by majority of filmmakers as propaganda cinema, won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration category at National Film Awards. Yes, you heard the category right: National Integration.

The national awards are in the hands of the incumbent BJP government and evidently they are using this platform to honour the proponents of their political narrative. They had earlier rewarded actress Kangana Ranaut for a similar, jingoistic film, Manikarnika, among others. By rewarding The Kashmir Files with a prestigious national award, they are not only endorsing a communal and hate-filled movie, but also mocking their opponents. Through their choice of the Nargis Dutt National Integration award, they have succeeded in putting this film in such a category, irrespective of all the criticism and controversy.

The BJP’s parent organization, Sangh Parivar has been running anti-Muslim propaganda since 2010 in various forms, especially through popular cinema, where Muslims and Mughals have been continuously shown as villains and enemies of India. The Kashmir Files is one such propaganda film that uses the plight of Kashmiri Pandits, who were forced to migrate from Kashmir in the 1990s, to garner Hindu votes. According to many Kashmiri Pandits, the BJP/RSS has never really bothered about them earlier — they were too busy with mandir-masjid issues. It’s only recently that they have decided to cash in on this subject to spread hate against Muslims and polarizing Indian society.

ALSO READ: ‘Propaganda Films Must Be Countered, Not Banned’

The Kashmir Files is an extremely biased representation of what happened with the Pandits in Kashmir. For instance, it totally ignores the much bigger suffering that the Kashmiri Muslims went through at the hands of the militants and Indian armed forces in the last couple of decades. Instead of doing anything good for Kashmiri Pandits, the film only spreads hatred and fear among the people.

There is a sharp divide between the opponents and supporters of the BJP government and Sangh parivar. This award has two purposes: to irritate and defeat the opponents and to assure their supporters and voters that this film (which they went to see in hordes) is really great and they did well to support it.

Serious, meaningful cinema has obviously been intentionally ignored. One glaring example is the film, Mulk, which brilliantly campaigned for communal harmony and tolerance through its cinematic narrative, but was not given a national award.

(The narrator has made documentary films like Basant, Khayal Darpan, Khusrau Darya Prem Ka, and Campus Rising which have been shown at various film festivals and academic venues. Through films and lectures, Saeed campaigns for peace and against the growing menace of online hate speech and misinformation. He has authored several books including Muslim Devotional Art in India (2012), Partitioning Bazaar Art (2023) among others. He runs arts & culture web portals like Tasveerghar.net and Ektara.org)

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As told to Amit Sengupta

Calling a Movie Islamophobic is The Easy Part

‘Branding a Movie Islamophobic or Propaganda is The Easy Part’

Gaurav Pandey, a social activist from Lucknow, says one may critique the handling of a cinematic work by a certain director, but one cannot shut one’s eyes to the reality. His views:

After the stunning success of The Kashmir Files, a movie based on the plight and forced displacement of Kashmir Pandits, many filmmakers felt there was a need to revisit similar injustices in the country. The movie thus sparked off several movies, like The Kerala Story, Ajmer 92 and 72 Hoorain, which the liberals were quick to brand as Islamophobic. However, I feel these movies hold the mirror to our society. Calling them Islamophobic is the easy part.

Cinema is but reflection of our society. If it fails to fulfil that objective, it becomes meaningless. Can one deny that Kashmiri Pandits were brutally killed and forced to leave their homes? Or scores of girls were blackmailed in Ajmer? Or innocent, impressionable minds are brainwashed to take up arms in the name of jihad? These are harsh realities. You may disagree with or critique the handling of these issues by a certain director, but you cannot shut your eyes to what has happened or is happening around you in the country.

These films do not target a person or a community, they expose the blot on our society and culture. This difference needs to be understood. After all these film did pass muster with the Censor Board, which screens every film before release! If at all these films had misrepresented facts or a faith, or were seen as promoting communal disharmony, the board would have objected to such scenes or the entire film.

Also, the filmmakers, for the past decade or so, have also been taking the liberty to choose topics that portrays what has been under-represented in popular culture. That is why a wide range of ‘bold’ films are being made and released on silver screen or OTT format. These themes speak of Dalit repression, women empowerment, alternate sexuality… and what not. So why object only to movies that unravel the misdeeds of a few criminals who took shelter behind religion?

ALSO READ: ‘Propaganda Movies Distort Facts Selectively’

Today’s ‘realistic’ films remind one of early Bollywood era, when cinema portrayed harsh realities, not stars who would be singing and dancing in foreign locales. Now, the filmmakers have become more ‘liberal’ in exploring all the avenues more freely.

Take for example Ajmer 92, which revisits a horrific real incident that deeply impacted the city of Ajmer in 1992. It portrays how more than 200 college girls were systematically blackmailed and raped by influential individuals connected to a political party. It tactfully avoids the perpetrators’ ties to the Sufi Dargah. It also embraced the cause of women empowerment, igniting a powerful message in its own unique way.

Similarly 72 Hoorain delves deep into the concept of terrorism with the intent to address the root cause of the problem and exposing the driving force behind it. It also beautifully portrays the `brain washing’ tactics used to lead the youths up the garden path.

Despite the controversies, such films are important in revitalizing Indian cinema and restore its former glory and can be useful in preserving our regional identity. The films which blindly follow a formulaic approach that dilute the distinct regional flavours and the distinctive depth of our society are no longer carry an appeal. No doubt commercial success is the most important aspect of filmmaking, but it should also not overshadow the need for innovative storytelling and thought provoking narratives. These films push the envelope, explore unconventional themes and dare to challenge society norms.

As told to Rajat Rai

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Kashmir To Kerala

Kashmir To Kerala, The Propaganda Potpourri

It must be stressed at the outset that no film, once cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), should be banned or prevented from being shown to the public. No individual or group – political, social or religious – should be allowed to act as an extra-constitutional authority.

On the ongoing controversies, it needs to be noted that no Kashmiri will make The Kashmir Files and no Malayali will make The Kerala Story. Kerala, especially, has a record of good cinema. Filmmakers from Kashmir know their state well and also know the damage a misleading picture can cause.

The focus is on Muslims – men in The Kashmir Files and women in The Kerala Story. The likely content of The Bengal Files, supposedly in the making, can be guessed from the West Bengal Chief Minister’s claim. Her state has a significant Muslim population and borders a Muslim-majority Bangladesh.

The ‘honour’ for the two films goes to Bollywood. Although a pejorative, the popular name for Mumbai-based cinema, to the exclusion of a dozen other film-making centres, it has legitimate claims of a global reach. This underscores the global damage bad cinema can cause and is evidently already causing. Britain has stopped The Kerala Story showing.

To carry out these ‘jobs’, however creative and lucrative, marks deterioration for Bollywood which has a record, without a formal political label, of promoting secular values. It has creative people from all communities. It gave the world My Name is Khan… when the West was witnessing aggressive promotion of Islamophobia post-9/11.

The fact is that Bollywood’s leading lights are anxious to stay on the right side of the political divide. After a century-plus of being the entertainment hub, Bollywood, or its influential sections, are no longer afraid of taking sides. The motivation, besides money which is okay, is political.

Films have caused controversies, even violent protests – some even when they were under production – in the past as well. The recent ones are part of the political and social churning and have contributed to the widening schism. But that, again, is no reason to ban a duly certified film.

Films are powerful tools that shape ideas, attitudes and social norms. They have a greater ability to sway opinions and spread ideas compared to other media forms. As such, the sudden slew of political films and biopics, and the timing of their release have raised questions about politicians capitalising on the power of Bollywood and Indian cinema in general for political mileage.

Cinema and politics have often intertwined in India. Several actors have turned to politics post their film careers while Indian movies have also tackled social and political concerns in plotlines, albeit implicitly and allegorically.

ALSO READ: ‘We Must Counter Propaganda Films, Not Ban It’

The present spree is in time for the national elections a year away, interspersed by many assembly polls. Its justification can well be that when other arms of the media are profiting from participation, why single out the cinema? And of this medium, the over-the-top (OTT) platforms, where content is not subject to censorship, have yet to join the electoral bandwagon. If and when they do, it will be really no-holds-barred.

The picture is not very different from 2019 except that it is more strident. An in-your-face biopic on Shiv Sena supremo Balasaheb Thackeray, a derisive film on former premier Manmohan Singh and a highly laudatory one on the present incumbent, Narendra Modi were released. Potshots taken against Singh stood in contrast with the forceful hagiography of Modi. The release of the Modi biopic was so close to the polls that the Election Commission had to force a delay.

But these films would seem benign today when compared to the current crop, with more in the offing. The difference in the approach needs to be noted. The film fare of 2019 had the government of the day, while remote-controlling, seeking to appear neutral. It left all action to the party leaders and cadres. But the ‘files’ on Kashmir and Kerala have enjoyed direct, in-your-face, endorsement from the top-most political authority, especially during the recent Karnataka elections. That the voter rejected divisive discourse is a different, if reassuring, story. Unless there is an attempt at course correction, this is more likely to persist over the next year.

The partisanship has penetrated and widened this time. The maker of The Kashmir Files, who continues to court controversy long after the film’s release and the diplomatic fracas it caused when shown at the country’s most prestigious international film festival, is a member of the CBFC. If he participated in the certification process of his own work is beside the point. The real issue is that the authority that appointed him retains him in that post through the controversy and after.

As for The Kerala Story, the official and political endorsement has come amidst almost universal criticism of its content and treatment and brazen juggling of figures – from 32,000 women being affected to just three and then the film’s producer argues that the numbers do not matter.

The Kerala Story was banned in West Bengal but the filmmakers secured a stay on the ban from the Supreme Court. The apex court, quite appropriately in principle, but ignoring the political overtones, asked why the film is banned. Whatever the contents’ quality, the two films have been projected as box office hits. Meanwhile, some BJP-ruled states have declared The Kerala Story tax-free.

Film certification has been a central subject, a carry-over from the colonial era. It can be argued that this is untenable in a quasi-federal polity where many provinces, particularly in peninsular India, have cinemas that reflect their distinctive culture. But given the divisiveness that already exists, one hesitates to add to the list of issues ranging from language, land borders to river waters.

Like much else on the agenda of various political parties, the debate is about the extent to which cinema can influence the minds of the viewers as potential voters. Indeed, the minds that work in the darkness of the cinema theatre (or the cosiness of home) and the exclusively covered polling booth where the vote is cast are the ultimate battlegrounds.

While it is true that propaganda is no longer a candidly top-down process with the proliferation of social media, the experience of the last century shows that films that are undisguised and naked political propaganda are not able to influence people. People may watch them but they see through the design and reject their crudity in its entirety. We will know where the Indian viewer/voter stands next summer.

The writer can be contacted at mahendraved07@gmail.com

Read More: lokmarg.com

‘We Must Find Other Ways to Counter Propaganda Films Than Banning’

Vidhu Vincent, a film director, writer and theatre activist from Kerala, recalls how propaganda films played a big role in the rise and growth of Nazism in Germany. Her views:

The Kerala Story, released recently has sparked off a controversy for its subject and treatment. There has been a widespread demand to ban the film as it promotes hatred against one community. The West Bengal government has banned it while BJP-ruled states have exempted from tax. In my opinion, it is not right to demand that the film should be banned. In that sense, filmmaker Sudhir Mishra, who has made yet another meaningful film called Afwah on the contradictions and tensions in contemporary India, is right: that no film should be banned and that there should be space for all opinions and perspectives in the cinema narrative – good or bad.

Mishra was talking about The Kashmir Files, where although he does not seem to agree with the content of the film, he would not seek a ban on it. Indeed, there should be reasonable debate and discussion about the film and let the audience watch it and make their observations about the film, however good or bad it might be.

Certainly, the right to freedom of expression is a constitutional right guaranteed in our pluralist and secular democracy, and everyone has every right to enjoy it. However, such propaganda films with apparently little regard for reality or facts, and with an ulterior motive to polarize or spread bad faith, needs to be countered in another way.

ALSO READ: ‘Kashmir Files A Political Ploy To Demonize Muslims’

We have to make real stories, big and small films, dramas, documentaries, literary works, refined and meaningful creations in arts, cinema and literature. We should write stories and poems etc., and show it in the public domain. Undoubtedly, this would be a strenuous and painstaking counter-action, but let the people decide what the real story is and what the reality is on the ground.

Vincent’s movie Manhole (left) won her the Kerala State Film Award for Best Director

Film critics have largely trashed The Kerala Story, with a prominentvoice describing it as “a poorly-made, poorly-acted rant which is not interested in interrogating the social complexities of Kerala, an India state proud of its multi-religious, multi-ethnic identity”. The quick change of the controversial film’s propaganda tag, to three women — from almost 30,000 women of Kerala who were allegedly converted to ISIS etc. — clearly shows how the film has been made up of lies. Now, everyone has been convinced of this lie because they had to correct it, during the judicial process where it was challenged.

It is historically well-known that the during the Nazi regime in Germany and the Holocaust that followed in parts of Europe, path-breaking filmmaker, Leni Riefenstahl, Hitler’s favourite film director, made propaganda films like Triumph of the Will and Berlin Olympics, in a gigantic scale. In those times, these motion\documentary pictures were generally recognized as an epical and innovative work of propaganda film-making. The film took Riefenstahl’s career to a new level and gave her further international recognition. Not only in Germany, these films have also been screened in other parts of the world.

These propaganda films had played a big role in the rise and growth of Nazism in Germany. Hence, there is no doubt that these propaganda films will work at some level during certain times. Hence, it is all the more important to counter it with a new, mainstream and parallel cinematic and artistic narrative, and defend this narrative using the tools of art, culture and aesthetics.

The narrator made her feature film debut with the Malayalam film Manhole, which won the Kerala State Film Award for Best Director. The film also won two awards at the 21st International Film Festival of Kerala, including the Best Debutant Director Award

As told to Amit Sengupta

‘The Kashmir Files’ Adjudged ‘Best Film’ At Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival

‘The Kashmir Files’ Adjudged ‘Best Film’ At Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival

Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s directorial ‘The Kashmir Files’ bagged the Best Film award at Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards held in Mumbai on Monday.

Sharing the update, Vivek took to Twitter and said that he dedicated the award to “all the victims of terrorism and to all the people of India for your blessings.”
“#TheKashmirFiles wins the ‘Best Film’ award at #DadaSahebPhalkeAwards2023.

“This award is dedicated to all the victims of terrorism and to all the people of India for your blessings,” he wrote.

Netizens flooded Vivek’s comment section with congratulatory wishes.

“Wow! Congratulations, well deserved,” a social media user commented.

“Huge congratulations to the team,” another one wrote.

‘The Kashmir Files’ documents the alleged genocide and exile of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, during the insurgency in Jammu and Kashmir. The film features Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumaar, Chinmay Mandlekar, and Bhasha Sumbli.

The film had a successful run at the box office.

The Dadasaheb Phalke International Film Festival Awards 2023 also saw Alia Bhatt lifting the trophy for ‘Best Actress’.

Her husband Ranbir Kapoor collected the ‘Best Actor’ award for his performance in ‘Brahmastra’. Veteran actor Rekha was honoured for her ‘Outstanding Contribution To The Film Industry’.

Here is the full winners’ list from the event.

Best Film: The Kashmir Files

Best Director: R Balki for Chup: Revenge of The Artist

Best Actor: Ranbir Kapoor for Brahmastra: Part 1

Best Actress: Alia Bhatt for Gangubai Kathiawadi

Most Promising Actor: Rishab Shetty for Kantara

Best Actor In A Supporting Role: Manish Paul for Jugjugg Jeeyo

Outstanding Contribution In The Film Industry: Rekha

Best Web Series: Rudra: The Edge of Darkness

Critics Best Actor: Varun Dhawan for Bhediya

Film of The Year: RRR

Television Series of The Year: Anupamaa

Most Versatile Actor Of The Year: Anupam Kher for The Kashmir Files

Best Actor In A Television Series: Zain Imam for Fanaa- Ishq Mein Marjawaan

Best Actress In A Television Series: Tejasswi Prakash for Naagin

Best Male Singer: Sachet Tandon for Maiyya Mainu

Best Female Singer: Neeti Mohan for Meri Jaan

Best Cinematographer: PS Vinod for Vikram Vedha (ANI)

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Anupam Kher on kashmir files

Close Your Eyes If You Can’t See Truth: Kher Over IFFI Jury’s Statement

Veteran actor Anupam Kher, who played the protagonist in the blockbuster ‘The Kashmir Files’, which documents the alleged genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley, on Tuesday spoke up on the raging controversy over the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) jury head and Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid’s statement calling the film ‘a propaganda’ and ‘vulgar’ at the festival’s closing ceremony on Monday.

Taking to Instagram, the actor, who recently appeared in the Sooraj R. Barjatiya directorial ‘Uunchai’, dropped a video on Instagram saying that some people can’t stomach ‘Kashmir’s truth’.

In his short video address on the social media platform, Kher said, “Friends, some people are not in the habit of showing the truth as it is. They like to give it a certain colour or cover up the truth in the name of creative liberty. The fact is that some people are not being able to digest Kashmir’s truth. They try to show Kashmir through a different cinematic lens and have been at it for the last 25-30 years. ‘The Kashmir Files’ has exposed them.”

He added, “They are having problems because the film documents the truth as it is. If you cannot see the truth, keep your eyes closed and your mouth shut. Stop making fun of it. This is our truth and we have lived through it.”

The veteran actor, who drew high praise for his performance in the film, said without taking names, “We, along with our daughters and sisters personally experienced those days. The scars are yet to heal. This truth is a part of our lives. Go and ask the ones who have been affected by it. India and Israel are friends and both countries are affected by terrorism. A common Israeli would understand the pain of Kashmiri Hindus. But, every country has traitors.”

He tagged his video post with a message that read, “The truth of Kashmir files is stuck like a thorn in the throat of some people. They are not able to swallow it or spit it out! Their soul, which is dead, is shattered badly to prove this truth false. But this film of ours is now a movement, not a movie. People’s consciousness has awakened. The desperate #Toolkit gang keeps trying millions. #TheKashmirFiles #Truth #TruthPrevails”.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the 53RD IFFI, Lapid termed ‘The Kashmir Files’ a ‘propaganda, vulgar film’, adding that he was ‘shocked’ to see the film in the competition section of such a prestigious film festival.

“If the holocaust was right then the exodus of Kashmiri pandits is also right. This (Lapid’s statement) seems pre-planned as immediately after, the tool-kit gang became active. It’s shameful for him to make a statement like this as he comes from a community whose members suffered the horrors of the holocaust,” Kher told ANI on Tuesday.

“By making a statement like this, he has also hurt the holocaust survivors. I wish God gives him (Lapid) the wisdom so that he doesn’t use our tragedy to peddle his agenda on stage,” the veteran actor added.

Kher also tweeted on Lapid’s statement, saying, “No matter how high the height of the lie is.. It is always small in comparison to the truth.”

The veteran actor also juxtaposed images of ‘The Kashmir Files’ and Steven Spielberg’s ‘Schindler’s List’ in his tweet to drive home his point.

ANI contacted the festival organisers but they refused any comments on the jury head’s statement. (ANI)

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Pallavi Joshi on IFFI

Creative Forums Used For Agenda Politics: Pallavi Joshi On IFFI Row

Actor-producer Pallavi Joshi, who starred and part-produced ‘The Kashmir Files’, on Tuesday, opened up on the snowballing controversy over Israeli filmmaker and IFFI Jury Head Nadav Lapid labeling the blockbuster as ‘a propaganda’ and a ‘vulgar’ film.

Taking to her Instagram handle, the actor, who also bank-rolled ‘The Tashkent Files’, posted, “For decades, the international community remained silent on the sufferings of the Kashmiri Pandit Community. After 3 decades, the Indian film industry finally realized that it needs to tell India’s story truthfully and objectively.”

“Vivek (Agnihotri, the director of ‘The Kashmir Files’) and I were always aware that there are elements that would not like to see the stark truth on the screen, but it is very unfortunate that a creative platform was used for a political agenda to preserve an old, false and jaded narrative about Kashmir,” the 53-year-old actor wrote.

Coming down hard on the Israeli filmmaker while thanking those who jumped to the film’s defence on social media, the ‘Trishagni’ actress added, “We are overwhelmed by the way people of India rose to defend ‘The Kashmir Files’ against the rude and vulgar statements of a genocide denier.”

Joshi went on to ‘assure the audience’ that ‘The Kashmir Files’ was. indeed, ‘a people’s film’.

She added that her production house ‘I Am Buddha’ foundation “stands for India” and “will continue on the path of truth and resilience to keep making meaningful cinema with original Indian content”.

Addressing the closing ceremony of the 53rd Internation Film Festival of India (IFFI) on Monday, Lapid said he was ‘shocked’ to see the film in the competition section of such a prestigious film festival.

A video clip of the closing ceremony, showing the Israeli helmer making the controversial remarks, went viral on social media.

His statement drew a fierce backlash from netizens, as well as actors Anupam Kher and Darshan Kumaar, who portrayed key roles in the film.

Filmmaker Ashoke Pandit and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) vice president Abhinav Prakash, too, lashed out at the Israeli filmmaker over his statement.

The film, which is a portrayal of the alleged genocide and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in the 90s, was released earlier this year and went on to become a major blockbuster. (ANI)

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Agnihotri On Controversy At IFFI

Prove Film Wrong, Will Quit Filmmaking: Agnihotri On Controversy At IFFI

Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri, on Tuesday, reacted to the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) Jury Head Nadav Lapid’s statement calling ‘The Kashmir Files’ a “propaganda and vulgar” film at the festival’s closing ceremony.

Taking to Instagram, director Vivek shared a video, which he captioned, “Terror supporters and Genocide deniers can never silence me. Jai Hind. #TheKashmirFiles #ATrueStory.”
https://www.instagram.com/p/ClioxwwD2he/embed

Vivek Agnihotri said in a video, “Yesterday at IFFI, a jury member called ‘The Kashmir Files’ a propaganda and a vulgar film. This is not a new thing for me, because these types of comments are being made by many terrorist organizations, urban naxals, and the people who want to divide India. But what surprises me the most is, that this narrative of dividing Kashmir from India by some terrorists was supported on stage at an event organized by the Government of India.”

Nadav Lapid had called ‘The Kashmir Files’ a “propaganda, vulgar film”, adding that he was “shocked” to see the film in the competition section of such a prestigious film festival. A video from the festival went viral in which Lapid is seen criticizing the film.

“Who are these people? These are the same people who called this film propaganda since the day I started working on the film. This film was made after interviewing more than 700 people whose family members were cut into pieces and gang raped. Were all those people talking propaganda or vulgar? The land where once Hindus were in majority has no Hindus today, and many Hindus are killed every other day. Is it propaganda or vulgarity? Yaseen Malik accepted his terrorism and he is in jail today. Is this propaganda or vulgarity?” Vivek added.

Lapid’s remarks did not go down well with many. Actors Anupam Kher and Darshan Kumaar, who played key roles in ‘The Kashmir Files’ along with filmmaker Ashoke Pandit and Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Vice President Abhinav Prakash were among the people who condemned the controversial comments

Vivek further said, “I challenge all these urban naxals and the legendary filmmaker who came from Israel, that if they can prove any single shot, event or dialogue is not completely true then I will quit filmmaking. Who are these people who stand up against India every time? These are the same people who never allowed Moplah’s and Kashmir’s truth to come out. These are the same people who were selling burning pyres for just some dollars, and now when I announced my next film ‘The Vaccine War’ they are standing against it also, but I am not afraid, do whatever you want to do but I will fight.”

‘The Kashmir Files’ was released earlier this year in theatres and it told the story of the Hindu exodus in the 1990s and targeted killings of the Kashmiri Pandits.

The movie went on to become one of the highest-grossing Bollywood movies of 2022 and Anupam Kher received acclaim for his performance. (ANI)

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