'The Kashmir Files': Vivek Agnihotri says powerful Bollywood people spread fake news, hate

The entire team of 'The Kashmir Files', including director Vivek Agnihotri and actor Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi among others, is elated with the phenomenal response to the film. One of the most talked-about and highly-debated films of its time, the critically acclaimed exodus drama has been performing brilliantly at the box office. 

However, before 'The Kashmir Files' became a phenomenon of sorts when it was released on March 11, nobody even noticed it. The film got limited screens and promotions were also finite. No one from the Hindi film industry, especially the bigwigs, endorsed the film or spoke about wanting to watch it. But when the film hit theatres, 'The Kashmir Files' as we know, emerged a winner at the box office. 

Now, in a recent interview with Siddharth Kanan, 'The Kashmir Files' director Vivek Agnihotri opened up about the film where he spoke about how despite limited promotions the film drew the audience to the theatres and shared whether or not the fact that Bollywood did not come out openly, tweeting and pushing 'The Kashmir Files', hurts him till date. 

READ: 'The Kashmir Files' box office collection: Film breaches Rs 200 crore mark - see details

Speaking about the industry's initial silence over 'The Kashmir Files', Vivek Agnihotri said, "In retrospect, I want to thank everybody that they did not notice it (The Kashmir Files). Main kabhi ess baat se ladai nahi lad raha tha ke humein space kyu nahi mili. Woh maine kabhi ladai nahi ladi. We understood nobody is believing in it, everybody thinks yeh ayegi Rs 2-4 crore business kar legi. Mera problem tha...jo powerful log hai industry ke, jo influencers hai, jo leaders hai, jinke paas thousands of crores hai aur jinki baat har koi sunta hai, they were spreading fake news and hate."

Vivek even called out a senior journalist for spreading 'venom'. While mentioning that he has nothing against the individual, he said that his problem is that they have become the 'establishment'. He said, "whatever they say, everybody has to tow that line. So, somebody has to rebel against that system. Somebody has to speak the truth to the system. So, I was speaking the truth to the power in a very democratic manner."

Meanwhile, when Pallavi Joshi, who was accompanying Vivek in the interview, was asked if they need the industry's validation, she said, "Maine toh kabhi kisi se expectation rakhi hi nahi (I never expected anything from anyone." She added, "Maine social media pe nahi hoon, isliye validation ki adat nahi hai mujhe. Mujhe validation sirf apno se chahiye jo mujhe apne bacchho se milti hai, immediate relatives se mil rahi that that 'you're doing good work continue doing that. You have our blessings'. Yeh jab maine apne bado se sunti hoon that is enough for me, mujhe aur kisi se validation ki zarurat nahi hai."

On Wednesday, the exodus drama became the highest-grossing Hindi film, the post-pandemic era. The film breached the Rs 200 crore mark at the domestic box office and worldwide it raked in Rs 28.85 crores in 13 days making the grand total to Rs 228.85 crores. 

Written and directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, the exodus drama features a stellar cast of actors including Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumaar, Pallavi Joshi and Chinmay Mandlekar.

Produced by Zee Studios and Tej Narayan Agarwal, Abhishek Agarwal, Pallavi Joshi and Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, ‘The Kashmir Files’, written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri released in theatres on 11th March, 2022.