Renowned filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, best known for The Kashmir Files, on August 16, claimed that the trailer launch of his new film The Bengal Files was “illegally stopped” by the Kolkata Police. The event, first planned at a theatre and later shifted to a private hotel, was disrupted despite clearance, prompting the director to accuse the state authorities of silencing his voice.
“With anguish I inform you: Today West Bengal police, on orders of ‘top authorities’, illegally stopped the trailer of #TheBengalFiles. First theatres, now even a private hotel. Who fears the truth of Hindu genocide? And why? Democracy is dead in Tagore & Vivekananda’s land,” Agnihotri wrote on X while sharing videos of the incident.
In the clips shared by Agnihotri, the trailer, depicting Bengal’s Partition-era violence and the 1946 Direct Action Day, was being played on a giant screen when Kolkata Police officials entered the venue and abruptly stopped the screening.
This was not the first disruption. Earlier in the day, a theatre in Kolkata reportedly cancelled the special screening of the trailer, citing “political pressure.” Left with no option, the filmmaker shifted the launch to a banquet hall, only to face yet another obstruction.
Agnihotri told news agency IANS that organisers had backed out at the last minute, citing pressure from “higher authorities.”
“Organisers told me that they can’t show it because of political pressure. Then we talked to another multiplex chain. They also said they would get into trouble if they screened it. What could be more saddening for a filmmaker than not being able to show his film in a theatre, the place for which it was made?” he asked.
Comparing the situation to an author being denied the chance to sell his book, Agnihotri said, “If someone writes a book and it is not shown in a bookshop, then we don’t have any option.”
Despite the setbacks, Agnihotri vowed not to give up. “But my name is Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and I am not one of the losers. So I said, ‘No problem, we will do it in a banquet hall’. This is my first time to launch the trailer of a film in such a way. Our entire team had come here, but it was cancelled again. I don’t know what they are afraid of. Why do they want to stop this film? Why do they want to suppress my voice?” he said.
The director pointed out that The Bengal Files has already been certified by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) and screened in 12 American cities without objection. “If a film has CBFC approval, why is it being stopped in Bengal?” he asked.
The Bengal Files focuses on the Partition-era violence in Bengal and the traumatic events of Direct Action Day (1946), which left deep scars in the region’s history. Given its sensitive subject, the film has already attracted attention and controversy, with critics alleging it may spark communal tensions.
Agnihotri, however, has defended the project as an attempt to bring “ignored truths of Indian history” to the mainstream.
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