Agnihotri did not reveal the name of the OTT or the CEO but said the CEO was very worried about not getting the expected performance in the Indian market (Photo Credit: OpIndia)
When CEO argued that Muslims were also killed in the Kashmir Hindu genocide, Agnihotri replied that the Muslims killed in the Valley were also killed by the same terrorists and not by Hindus.
The Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of a leading Over the Top (OTT) platform in the country asked The Kashmir Files director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri to either remove the phrase 'Islamic Terrorism' from the dialogues of the movie or also use the phrase 'Hindu Terrorism' for releasing the film on his OTT.
Agnihotri did not reveal the name of the OTT or the CEO but said the CEO was very worried about not getting the expected performance in the Indian market.
In a conference on January 20, streaming giant Netflix Co-Founder and CEO Reed Hastings had expressed his worries about not doing good in the Indian market. "In every single other major market, we've got the flywheel spinning…The thing that frustrates us is why haven't we been as successful in India. But we're definitely leaning in there," Hastings had said.
Agnihotri revealed this in an exclusive interview to OpIndia CEO Rahul Roushan.
Narrating the incident from 2020, Agnihotri said, "What I am saying here can be verified. The head of one-of-the most talked about OTT companies was keen on buying the film at a very vulgar price. If I were a typical commercial-minded filmmaker, I would have signed the deal there itself."
But the CEO was adamant that the phrase 'Islamic Terrorism' be removed from the film.
"How is this even possible? When the calls of Ralive, Tsalive, Galive (Convert to Islam, leave the valley or die) were given, it was nothing but Islamic terrorism. The calls of converting to Islam, Raj Karega Allah (only Allah will rule) were openly given…This was not the case of targeting political opponents telling people to leave the valley because they don't agree with their ideology. This was also not a case of cultural targeting alone where say the celebration of festivals like Diwali was opposed," Agnihotri replied.
Agnihotri asked how can a film on the Holocaust be produced without mentioning the Nazi or Hitler, the very root cause of that violence?
"The incitement against Hindus was clear and so was a message to them – either convert or flee and those who did not budge were killed. The calls threatening Hindus to leave the valley while leaving their women were also given. Alongside Hindus, Sikhs were also killed in the genocide only because of their religion and not because of their economic stature as suggested by journalists like Barkha (Dutt)," Agnihotri said.
The CEO argued Muslims were also killed in the Kashmir Hindu genocide, to which Agnihotri replied that the Muslims killed in the Valley were also killed by the same terrorists and not by Hindus.
The Kashmir Files, starring Darshan Kumar, Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Chinmay Mandlekar and Bhasha Sumbli in lead roles, tells the story of Hindu genocide in Kashmir as it happened.
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