Explainer: 'Kashmir Banega Pakistan' Slogans made actors cry, An Emotional torture; expresses Vivek Agnihotri

Right now 'The Kashmir Files' movie is in the headlines. There has been a discussion about this across the country.  

Politics is also not taking the name of stopping. It is me who has made this film. My name is Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri. I am a writer as well as a director. Before this, my film Tashkent Files was in LimeLight. I am not from Bollywood.  

Resigned from This So-Called Bollywood 13 years ago. What is Bollywood...?  I do not know. I am an Indian filmmaker, I make films mirroring Indian society and will continue to make them.

Right now I am researching a film called Delhi Files. Don't let its name make you think that it is based on the Delhi riots. It is on a more important issue than that, but for now, let Raj remain a secret. For now, the talk will be only on Kashmir files.

I want to tell people why did I create Kashmir files? What was my dilemma before making this? I always used to think that Bollywood and non-Bollywood have made seven-eight films on the Kashmir issue.  

For example, films like Roza, Fiza, Fanaa, Mission Kashmir, Haider.  These are all films of the era when terrorism was at its peak.

Legends like Yash Raj Studios, Vinod Chopra, Mani Ratnam and Vishal Bhardwaj have made these films. I believe terrorism has been justified in all these films. In these, the mentality and psychology of a terrorist were shown that under what circumstances he becomes a terrorist, but no actor or director went to the terrorists and asked what they think?  

Just created a fabricated theory that the army persecutes them, so these people became terrorists.

Many senior CRPF personnel posted in Kashmir came to meet me. They were telling that the narrative that Bollywood has made about Kashmir, there is no account of how much damage has been done to the security and force here.  

The day it will be accounted for, it will be accounted for how terrorism is flourishing in Kashmir on the shelter of intellectual terrorists, on that day these people will drown in shame.

They say that they have been oppressed, so these people took up guns. I want to ask how many atrocities have happened to Dalits in the country, those people do not pick up guns.  

The zamindars oppressed the farmers, but they did not take up the gun. Kashmiri Hindus never picked up guns, did not throw stones, did not abuse, instead, they started educating their children.  

That's why I thought that now there should be such a point of view which shows the truth. False and fabricated stories abound. This is how Kashmir Files was born in my mind.

Just created a fabricated theory that the army persecutes them, so these people became terrorists.

There is another story behind this.  Once I went to America. There I met Dr Surendra Kaul. He is the founder of Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora. He told me that Vivek Ji everyone makes false films about us. Will anyone make a real film?  Does anyone have that much courage? What will you make?

I told him that it would be life-threatening to make it, so people are not making this film. Perhaps it would be more beneficial to meet or befriend terrorists. I asked him who would invest the money in this? 

Terrorism is a business. After the formation of Kashmir Files, the people running this business have become bare. This nakedness has happened to him for the first time.

There is no director, no music director, no cameraman in my film.  Everyone is working quietly behind.  pressing yourself. It didn't happen suddenly, everything has been done deliberately. In this film, only the pain, suffering and story of the characters will be seen. This has been done thoughtfully. In this film, you will see that which is not often seen in films.  

He is compassionate, human and determined. Through the film, we had a mission against terrorism and in favour of humanity. That was our ideology. That's why people from all over the country and abroad connected with this film.

I am a very spiritual person. If I was scared, I would not have made this film. Many people are saying that I have shown too much in the film.  Why not show even a single Muslim who has helped Hindus in that massacre?  

As is often seen in Partition, 84 riots or other riots, people helped each other despite having opposite ideologies. We have been brainwashed so much that we want to keep a point of view of terrorists in the film. Want to listen to terrorists.

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I want to ask how can a terrorist have a point of view?  No point of view. They are against humanity.  Killing people based on religion.  Any man who wants terrorists to have a point-of-view in the film is not a human.

I will be like this for the rest of my life. I am not fond of fame, cars and money. The government has given me security, but it feels like a prison to me.

By the way, I would like to tell you that the last scene in the film, in which a Muslim in Shikara, talks to Krishna Pandit with a small child.  I got that scene written by a Kashmiri boy and a friend of his has acted in it. I told him that whatever you write, I will depict it as it is.  

His pain is also in the film. Whoever listens to the leaders will find shortcomings in the film, but if he listens to the common man, the attitude of watching the film will change.

Every man was doing his religion in his way. Duryodhana has also performed his religion, but what was the difference between him and the Pandavas? The difference was that the Pandavas had compassion. This compassion separates Rama and Ravana.

The actors used to cry bitterly after every scene while shooting.  I had not cried since the death of my father, but when Anupam Kher died in the film, I clung to him and started crying bitterly. I missed my father. Everyone kept crying somewhere in this film. Keep getting emotional.  

In the film, the actors were not ready to raise slogans of 'Kashmir Banega Pakistan'. We used to explain a lot to them. They used to cry a lot after shooting scenes with such slogans, then used to shout slogans like Bharat Mata Ki Jai, Vande Mataram.

There were various problems during the shooting of the film. When we were shooting in Kashmir, a fatwa was issued in my name. We were compelled to pick up our bags and shoot in Uttarakhand. A complete set like Kashmir had to be installed there.

I have clearly shown the ideology of Yasin Malik, who represents terrorism, in the film. The ideology of JNU and colleges has been shown honestly without cutting a word, without changing commas and full stops. Pallavi Joshi (Radhika Menon) has lived that character with utmost sincerity.

Some people have a lot of problems with JNU that we painted it in one colour, but I want to say that the film deals with metaphors.  

The ideology which is prevailing in JNU is prevailing in every university and college and this is the truth. I join hands not to say about my film that Islamophobia is being spread through it.

As far as Bollywood is concerned, it is run by mature people. Those who have neither the knowledge of India nor the knowledge of any other thing. They only know about sheep. I have made three films so far. Buddha in Traffic Jam, Tashkent Files and now Kashmir Files.  

All three films show that the audience is very intelligent.  All three films are such, which Bollywood believes should not happen in the film, that is what is inside them. This means that the audience is ready to watch such films, but no one is ready to make them.