Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has alleged that the West Bengal government and police are pressuring theatre owners not to screen his upcoming film The Bengal Files, which is slated for the release, reported Hindustan Times.
Speaking to reporters in Mumbai ahead of the release, Agnihotri said producers of the film are considering legal action.
Hindustan Times quoted, “Whatever the West Bengal government is doing is illegal and unconstitutional. We are planning to file a writ petition, but will decide based on what happens tomorrow, and accordingly, we will take legal action,” he said.
The filmmaker claimed that several theatre owners, including officials from major multiplex chains, had informed him of receiving threats.
“A lot of theatre owners have said that the police have been threatening them of dire consequences if they release the film. They are like, ‘What will we do if they barge in and destroy our property?’” Agnihotri alleged, reported Hindustan Times.
His wife and co-producer, actor Pallavi Joshi, has appealed to President Droupadi Murmu to intervene in the matter. Agnihotri said the film had also been dubbed in Bengali “because lakhs of Bengali people want to watch it.”
The controversy around The Bengal Files comes after its trailer launch event in Kolkata was disrupted, and at least two Bengali actors associated with the project distanced themselves from the film.
Revisiting the communal riots of August 1946 in Kolkata, also known as Direct Action Day, the film is described as the concluding chapter of Agnihotri’s The Files trilogy, after The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022).
The movie features Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Saswata Chatterjee and Darshan Kumarr.
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