Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri Archives - Lokmarg

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

By LokMarg 21st February 2023

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)

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

By LokMarg 29th November 2022

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)

‘The Kashmir Files is A Farrago of Disinformation; A Propaganda’

By LokMarg 21st March 2022

Omair Hasan* counters the Bollywood narrative which, he argues, is an attempt to further polarize the country and a disservice to the cause of Kashmiri Pandits

I was about three year old when the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley happened. I have very little memory of the incident. But the story of their migration came in front of me in various forms. As I grew, I realized a couple of houses in my neighbourhood were always deserted. Those were the houses of Pandits who left during the 1990 violence.

I also came across many other stories of violence against them. Nobody can justify the atrocity and violence which happened on them. But weaponising those tragic incidents against Kashmiri Muslims is also not justified.

I saw The Kashmir Files and I seriously doubt the intention of the movie. It is a farrago of disinformation. A complete distortion of facts; a misrepresentation of history and a vicious propaganda.

Every incident has been presented in the movie in a way with an agenda. If we start with the death toll, 89 Kashmiri Pandits were killed in attacks since the inception of militancy in 1990, according to the government data. The movie completely evades the data on the number of killings.

There are various scenes in the movie which show the massacre but never address the number of deaths or what led to the start of killings.

ALSO READ: Kashmir Files Brings Alive Our Pain & Plight

In his book Kashmir: The Vajpayee Years, AS Dulat addresses the reason behind the start of killings. He writes that some Pandits were on the payrolls of Intelligence Bureau which he was heading. He also goes on to name some of them who were killed. This vindicates the position taken by militant groups that they were not targeting Pandits in general but had selective targets not linked to their religion but for their affiliations with Indian Intelligence.

This thus debunks and punctures the Indian state’s propaganda to shame Kashmiri resistance movement. I believe that the intention behind hiding the numbers and reason in the movie was to obfuscate people than to make them aware of the event.

Another distorted fact which has been shown in the movie is Kashmiri Pandits demanding removal of Article 370 in 1990. It is laughable. Why were Pandits demanding the removal of Article 370 then, when it also suited them as much as it suits Kashmiri Muslims?

Now let’s talk about slogans used in the movie. Slogan has always been a big part of any movement and so it has been in Kashmir. But the film shows some false slogans that was never a part of the public movement in Kashmir. The film shows Kashmiri crowd raising slogans like “Ralive, Tsaliv ya Galive (convert to Islam, leave the place or perish).” This is completely false. It was never a part of the ‘Kashmir movement’ in its entire history.

According to the movie, all Kashmiri Muslims support Pakistan, including Abdullahs and Muftis. The fun fact for readers of this article is that the so-called nationalist BJP has formed many governments with these so-called Pakistani supporters both at the Centre and in Kashmir.

The movie hails the present government at the Centre as if this is the first time the BJP government has come to power since 1990. I would like to remind people that in these 32 years, the BJP government has remained in power at the Centre for 14 years. We must not forget that it also formed government in Kashmir too. In these years, how many Pandits have been resettled in Kashmir?

Injustice has happened to Pandits but we can’t do justice to them with this kind of propaganda by building anti-Kashmiri narratives. Such kind of movie will further polarise the country and anger of people will be vented out on innocent Kashmiri students who are studying in universities and colleges in different parts of the country. These students have nothing to do with things which happened when they were not even born or were very young and had no say in the politics of the state.

Whether Pandits or Muslims, I think Kashmir is the real victim here. It has been victim for many centuries and still fighting the battle.

As told to Md Tausif Alam

* Hasan declined to share his picture for safety reasons. Respecting his wish, we have used a representational picture