The Kashmir Files row: Vivek Agnihotri has been making headlines after Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid made some remarks about his film. On Tuesday morning, he shared a cryptic tweet on the matter. After a few hours, he posted a video responding to the controversy on the microblogging platform, in which he adamantly said he would stop making movies if anyone could show that what he had depicted in his movie was untrue. His caption read, "Terror supporters and genocide deniers can never silence me. Jai Hind."
In the video, the filmmaker said, "This is nothing new for me. Such things are often said by terrorist organisations, urban naxals and by those who want to divide the country. What is shocking to me is that the narrative supported by those who wish to separate Kashmir from India was voiced on the stage of an event organised by the Indian government. And a few who live in India used it against the country. Who are these people who always stand against India?"
He further stated that he interviewed 700 victims before making the movie and questioned people about whether they were lying. "This film was made after interviewing 700 people, whose families and relatives were killed, gang-raped and cut in halves. Are those 700 people spreading propaganda and talking vulgar?"
"It is often said that The Kashmir Files is a propaganda movie and that the Hindus were never killed in the valley. So today, I challenge all intellectuals, urban naxals and this great filmmaker from Israel: if they can prove that a single shot, dialogue, event from The Kashmir Files is untrue, I would stop making movies," he added.
For the unversed, at the closing ceremony of IFFI, referring to The Kashmir Files, Nadav Lapid said, "All of us are disturbed. It felt to us like a propaganda, vulgar movie inappropriate for an artistic competitive section of such a prestigious competition."
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"The Kashmir Files", which was released in theatres on March 11, was part of the Indian Panorama Section at IFFI and was screened on November 22. Written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri and produced by Zee Studios, the film depicts the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir following the killings of people from the community by Pakistan-backed terrorists.
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