Hours after sending a legal notice to Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee – for ‘defaming’ his movie ‘The Kashmir Files’ – filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri declared he had led a ‘miserable’ life over the past year because some politicians and journalists had targeting him and some ‘communal fact checkers’ had circulated pictures of his daughter taken from social media.
“How I have been living for the past one year… only I can tell you. Some politicians, journalists and so-called communal fact-checkers have made my life difficult. They are trying to silence me. Some communal fact checkers circulated my daughter’s picture after lifting it from her Instagram profile, which is a shameless act,” Agnihotri said.
Released last year, ‘The Kashmir Files’ claims to chronicle the exodus of Pandits from the Kashmir Valley in 1990 – at the height of militancy and violence in the area.
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The movie triggered a massive political controversy on its release, with the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party throwing its weight behind Agnihotri and his production, while the opposition united to condemn ‘The Kashmir Files’ for promoting a communal agenda.
The movie found mention this week in Mamata Banerjee’s comments on another film that has spawned a political row – Sudipto Sen’s ‘The Kerala Story’, which claims to show the radicalisation (and conversion to Islam) of women and their induction into the Islamic State.
‘The Kerala Story‘ has been banned by the Bengal government over fears it could lead to communal disharmony and Mamata Banerjee said: “What is ‘The Kashmir Files’? It is to humiliate one section. What is ‘The Kerala Story’… it is a distorted story.”
(With inputs from ANI)
