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Kashmir Files row explained: What exactly Nadav Lapid said about Vivek Agnihotri film? How did Israel react?

The Kashmir Files was released on March 11 this year. Written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, the film shows the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits.

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The Kashmir Files: Lapid didn't stop at calling the movie -- the highest-grossing film of 2022 in India -- vulgar.
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Nadav Lapid is an Israeli filmmaker who was in India recently. He was the head of the jury of the 53rd International Film Festival of India when called The Kashmir Files film propaganda and vulgar, triggering a massive row with the film's lead actors Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, and director Vivek Agnihotri slamming the unwarranted commentary. Lapid didn't stop at calling the movie -- the highest-grossing film of 2022 in India -- vulgar. He said The Kashmir Files disturbed and shocked him. Here's what Lapid exactly said. 

"All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie 'The Kashmir Files'. It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel comfortable to openly share this feeling with you since the spirit of the festival can truly accept critical discussion which is essential for art and life". 

What's in The Kashmir Files?

The Kashmir Files was released on March 11 this year. Written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri, the film shows the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir amid rampant targeted violence by terrorists and Islamists. 

In the movie, Pallavi Joshi played the role of a college professor with separatist sentiments. Those opposing the movie claimed it was part of propaganda against JNU, which has emerged as the center of the left vs right power struggle.

The film showed in graphic detail atrocities meted out to the Kashmiri Pandit population in the valley by anti-India elements.

Many film critics claimed the film pandered to the Hindutva narrative supported by the government in power.

However, the film was well-received among members of the Kashmiri Pandit community that has been living in exile in several parts of the country, unable to return to the valley due to Pakistan-sponsored terrorism. The community said the film rightly portrays what transpired in the late 1980s that forced them to escape what had been their home for millennia. 

Thousands of Kashmiri Pandits were raped, murdered, and driven out of their houses in Kashmir in 1990, forcing them to live as refugees in their own country. 

Many of the BJP's political opponents also called the film propaganda peddled by right-wing activists to communally charge the country's environment.

Also read: The Kashmir Files director Vivek Agnihotri BREAKS SILENCE on Nadav Lapid's 'propaganda vulgar' comment

Reactions to the comments

Anupam Kher, a veteran actor who champions the Kashmiri Pandit cause, slammed the actor and even invoked the holocaust, a subject sensitive in Israel. 
What is the holocaust? Millions of Jews were killed in Europe by the Nazis led by Adolf Hitler. He had placed these Jews in camps and factories especially designed to murder the members of the community on an industrial scale. 

Kher said, "If the holocaust was right then the exodus of Kashmiri pandits is also right. This seems pre-planned because immediately after it the tool-kit gang became active. It's shameful for him to make a statement like this even though he comes from a community of Jews who suffered from the holocaust". 

"So by making a statement like this, he has also pained those people who suffered this tragedy. I would just say may god give him wisdom so that he doesn`t use the tragedy of thousands of people to fulfill his aim on stage," he was quoted as saying by the news agency ANI as saying. 

He also tweeted pictures of Schindler's List, a movie based on the holocaust.

Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM) Vice President Abhinav Prakash condemned Lapid's remarks and called him a Hindu-hating bigot. 

"Nadav Lapid is a Hindu-hating bigot who whitewashes ethnic cleansing. Not less than a Nazi enabler..."

Agnihotri tweeted, "Truth is the most dangerous thing. It can make people lie." 

Congress spokesperson Supriya Srinate, however, supported the remark. 

"PM Modi, his government, BJP, RW (right wing) ecosystem feverishly promoted 'The Kashmir Files'. A movie rejected by the International Film Festival Of India. Jury Head Nadav Lapid called it a 'propaganda, vulgar movie - inappropriate for the film festival'. Hate gets called out, eventually," she tweeted. 

The harshest rebuke to the filmmaker, however, came from Naor Gilon, Israel's envoy in India. He wrote an open letter to his compatriot. 

"YOU SHOULD BE ASHAMED. Here’s why: In Indian culture, they say that a guest is like God. You have abused in the worst way the Indian invitation to chair the panel of judges at the event as well as the trust, respect and warm hospitality they have bestowed on you," he wrote in a series of tweets.

He said he wasn't able to understand his remarks after he and Anurag Thakur said on the stage that 'both the countries fight a similar enemy. 

He said he isn't a film expert but "I do know that it’s insensitive and presumptuous to speak about historic events before deeply studying them and which are an open wound in India because many of the involved are still around and still paying a price."

"My suggestion. As you vocally did in the past, feel free to use the liberty to sound your criticism of what you dislike in Israel but no need to reflect your frustration on other countries. I’m not sure that you have enough factual basis to make such comparisons. I know I don’t," he added.

He said he was extremely hurt seeing reactions in India to the controversy. He condemned statements doubting Schindler's List and the Holocaust. 

"As a son of a holocaust survivor, I was extremely hurt to see reactions in India to you that are doubting Schindler’s List, the Holocaust and worse. I unequivocally condemn such statements. There is no justification. It does show the sensitivity of the Kashmir issue here," he said.

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