Bollywood is run by immature ones

In Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files, which trains its lens firmly on the barbarities meted out to Kashmiri Pandits in the valley, a 20-something student Krishna Pandit (played by Darshan Kumar) who studies at an elite Delhi university, stands confused as he sets out on the search for truth in the face of competing ideologies.

- POOJA BIRAIA JAISWAL

INTERVIEW Vivek Agnihotri, filmmaker

On the one hand, there is his Kashmiri Hindu identity and on the other is the “leftist propaganda” that portrays Kashmiri Pandits as oppressors. In his protagonist’s transformation—from Arjun, the seeker of truth, to Krishna, the all-knowing—Agnihotri sees himself.

“I am Krishna Pandit,” says the filmmaker in an interview with THE WEEK, at a time when his film has already grossed ₹200 crore at the box office.

Although the director has no familial connection to Kashmir valley, the film is personal for him in many ways. Krishna’s mother is named Sharda, after Agnihotri’s mother. Also, the death of Anupam Kher’s character in the film reminded him of the time when his father died in 2008—while shooting the scene he broke down and wailed his heart out.

Ever since its release, the film has stirred the masses and set social media on fire. It has been called out for being a “lie” spreading “islamophobia” and for leaving out the “other side of the story”. But Agnihotri remains unfazed. “The problem is that the media is only highlighting the voices of those who are objecting to the film,” he says.

Dressed in all black and seated inside a suburban studio, Agnihotri comes across as feisty, yet, calm. He is wearing close to half a dozen bracelets on his wrist—something that has been his trademark for many years now. “Each ring symbolises a religion: Hinduism, Christianity, Buddhism, Sikhism, Judaism, and more,” he says. And then after a brief pause, adds, “It has nothing to do with The Kashmir Files. Perhaps, I was born with these.”