Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s latest film about the departure of Hindus from Kashmir in the 1990s has created quite a stir in India.
Now the question arises, who is Vivek Agnihotri?
Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is a best-selling novelist, filmmaker, and public intellectual who has won numerous awards. Vivek is a prominent public speaker on socio-political subjects such as “Creative Thinking” and “Innovation” in top global institutes. He is an ex-advertising man. Vivek is a warrior for ‘Indic Culture.’
He is a filmmaker, screenwriter, novelist, and activist from India. He is a member of India’s Central Board of Film Certification’s board of directors and a cultural representative of Indian cinema at the Indian Council for Cultural Relations as of 2019. For The Tashkent Files, he won the National Film Award for Best Screenplay – Dialogues (2019). Agnihotri began his work at ad agencies before moving on to produce and direct tele-serials. He made his Bollywood debut with the murder thriller Chocolate (2005) and has subsequently directed a number of films.
How It Started?
Chocolate (2005), a remake of the 1995 Hollywood neo-noir criminal thriller The Usual Suspects, was Agnihotri’s Bollywood debut. The film received mixed reviews from critics and performed poorly at the box office. Tanushree Dutta, a Bollywood actress, accused Agnihotri of inappropriate behaviour during the making of the film in 2018. During a close-up shot, he allegedly requested her to undress and dance in order to give emotion cues to her male co-star Irrfan Khan, and only fled after Irrfan and Suniel Shetty rebuffed him. Agnihotri called the claims “false and ridiculous,” and he sued Dutta for defamation. Tanushree’s charges were also refuted by Sattyajit Gazmer, the film’s associate director.
Dhan Dhana Dhana Dhana Dhana Dhan Goal is a British film about an all-Asian football club that wins trophies while overcoming bigotry on the pitch and a local municipality that wants to sell the team’s ground. It earned mixed reviews from reviewers and did “average” box office business. Hate Story garnered mixed reviews from critics and did well at the box office. Buddha in a Traffic Jam, which starred his wife Pallavi and premiered at the Mumbai International Film Festival in 2014, was critically panned and performed poorly at the box office. Junooniyat received mixed reviews and performed equally.
The Kashmir Files – A Controversial Finding
The Kashmir Files, his directorial debut, has wreaked havoc at the box office. Despite other major releases in theatres and no marketing, the film’s box office performance showed no signs of slowing. The departure of Kashmiri Hindus during the Kashmir insurgency in 1990 is the subject of The Kashmir Files, which was released on March 11. Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumaar, Mithun Chakraborty, and Pallavi Joshi feature in the film.
The Kashmir Files is a factual narrative of the atrocities perpetrated against Kashmiri Pandits during the conflict in Kashmir in 1990. It is a genuine account based on video interviews with first-generation Kashmiri Pandit Community victims. It’s a heartbreaking storey about Kashmiri pandits’ anguish, suffering, struggle, and trauma, and it raises important concerns about democracy, religion, politics, and humanity.
The Kashmiri Pandits’ suffering is real, and it deserves to be reflected in popular culture, but it demanded a more nuanced, objective perspective than Agnihotri’s “we vs. them” mentality.
The film is based on the testimonies of people who have been scarred by the insurgency in the State for generations, and portrays the tragic exodus as a full-scale genocide, akin to the Holocaust, that was kept hidden from the rest of India by the media, the ‘intellectual’ lobby, and the government of the day for their own vested interests.
It’s a disconcerting take that grabs and gripes at different times. Bloodshed, torture, and otherization of Pandits have all been depicted in graphic detail. The camerawork captures the Valley’s dark, sombre tones, and the performances are riveting.
Awards & Achievements
- Won AD club gold
- Won Advertising & Marketing Gold award
- His film Buddha In A Traffic Jam was selected for MAMI film Festival in India Gold category as one of the best feature films in 2014
- Won ‘Best writer’ award at Madrid Film Festival for his film ‘Buddha In A Traffic Jam.
- Nominated for Best Director at Dada Saheb Phalke Award
- Won Best writer and Director at Jakarta Film Festival and Global Film festival
- Won several awards for actors.
- Won more than a dozen awards for his contribution to cinema
- Recently been awarded for his book ‘Urban Naxals’ at Global Literature festival as Best Debut Author