Vivek Agnihotri: People have pre-conceived notions if a film is made on Kashmir

Mumbai, Dec 15  Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, who is gearing up for the release of his movie ‘The Kashmir Files’, has said that people in India often assume things without even watching a film and that if a film is made about Kashmir then people have pre-conceived notions.

Agnihotri, who was hosting multiple screenings in the US for ‘The Kashmir Files’, was asked about the kind of challenges he had to face while making this film.

The filmmaker said: “People in India will say things without watching the film. Once you watch the film, you will understand what it is all about because your mind is limited with what you have seen before. If a film is being made about Kashmir then people have pre-conceived notions that ‘ye aisi hogi ya waisi hogi’ (It will be like this or that).”

He added: “There are threats to your life. There is a fatwa issued in our name in Kashmir and there is a threat to life. What can be worse than that? People talk about freedom of speech all the time.”

‘The Kashmir Files’ is an upcoming Hindi-language film written and directed by Agnihotri starring Mithun Chakraborty and Anupam Kher. The film tells the story of exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.

Agnihotri credited his wife and the film’s producer Pallavi Joshi for encouraging him to make the movie.

“The entire credit of making this film goes to Pallavi (Joshi) because she is the one who encouraged me to make this film, and with courage. As a wife and a mother, both our children were also working on this film.”

He added: “They accompanied us to Kashmir too and they have seen the kind of threats we got. They have seen a fatwa being issued in their father’s name. We just thought of making this film and rightfully called it as Right to Justice.”