“THE KASHMIR FILES” KE BADE KA SIDE EFFECTS, BOX-OFFICE PAR DHAMAAL AUR KAMAAL AUR RAJNEETI MEIN BAWAAL - By Ali Peter John

No film historian or no learned film critic could have predicted what has happened to Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s “The Kashmir Files” - Ali Peter John

The film which was released on March 11, 2022 on a low profile and without any major hype has now crossed the 250 crore mark (as of March 31, 2022) and is still going strong not only in India, but has also been cleared by the censors in several countries of the gulf where it may be released soon and it is also scheduled to be released in Singapore and other countries in the near future.

The director and his wife Pallavi Joshi who also plays a major role in the film has been invited by the British Parliament to speak about the problems of the Kashmiri Pandits and the genocide of the 90s.

Bollywood and its representatives have not been very open in their praise of the film, but yet there have been stars like Akshay Kumar, Ajay Devgn, Varun Dhawan (who is also said to have helped financially during the making of the film), Taapsee Pannu and Kangana Ranaut have been all praise for the film, the director and for Anupam Kher.

And for some strange reasons, those who have not reacted favorable are being looked at or looked down in a certain kind of suspicion.

This kind of an atmosphere was never experienced in Bollywood before. There is a clear atmosphere of hostility between two sections of people.

The team of the film going all out to promote the film, specially Vivek and Anupam. They are even finding letters which were written by the former Prime Minister Mrs. Indira Gandhi to support their film.

And for the last few days, Anupam Kher is using a photograph of him and some Hindu priests visiting his house and blessing him and he writes a caption to the photograph in which he says that the sadhus did not ask for anything (What were they supposed to ask?).

Now all eyes are now on what role the film is going to play in the politics of the country.

The BJP has clearly made its choice by exempting the film from tax in all the states ruled by it and the non-BJP states like Rajasthan, Punjab, Delhi and Maharashtra have been adamant in not even listening to the pleas made to them for tax exemption.

The BJP is using every kind of tactics to attack the Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal ever since he made a statement asking the director to upload the film and let it be seen free by the people.

On March 30, 2022, the youth wing of the BJP not only attacked Kejriwal verbally, but even smashed the gate of his house, CCTV cameras as well as well as security barriers and threw paint on the main gate of his residence.

A boom barrier arm was also found vandalized. This incident has taken an ugly turn with several protestors belonging to the youth wing of the BJP being arrested. And now comes’ the big attack on the film from Sharad Pawar, the founder of the NCP who says that the film should not have been cleared by the censors.

YEH AAG KAB BUJEGI, KAISE BUJEGI, KAUN BUJAYGA, YEH ABHI KOI NAHI KEH SAKTA…