Vivek Agnihotri occasionally loses cool as students pose tough questions at Chandigarh University

Sheetal

‘From Tashkent to Kashmir to Delhi — will Vivek Agnihotri now turn towards Godhra in Gujarat or Nellie in Assam for his next?’ we wondered aloud while interacting with the filmmaker at the venue of The 2nd Chandigarh Music and Film Festival and the retort that came was quite unexpected, “Saare files banana ka theka humne le rakha hai kya?”

His better half and producer-actor of The Kashmir Files, Pallavi Joshi, however, was more composed, explaining that it was a creative call to end the trilogy with The Delhi Files and not carry on like an episodic series to rip open the Pandora’s box of all sorts of tragedies in history.

The Kashmir Files director and his wife were in Chandigarh University to interact with the students of media and journalism. Once the dust settled, the director advised the students to make films on other tragedies. He said, “There are too many films on Gujarat riots. I want to bring out the truth on topics that need courage to do so.” That somewhat explains the Y-category security after The Kashmir Files. And has he made peace with this recent change in lifestyle? “Well, not really. It’s claustrophobic to have people guarding me all the time. I enjoy freedom and like to interact with people freely. I volunteer to be at events like these and if time permits I will continue to do so in future as well.”

A Kashmiri student asked the director why he chose to remain quiet about the Muslim voices which were against the atrocities committed on the Pandits. Commending the confidence of the girl, he replied, “You have noticed what’s missing in The Kashmir Files, but did you notice that Kashmiri Pandits were missing in films like Fiza, Haider, Mission Kashmir, Roja and many others? I am sure you had not noticed this until today. I mentioned in the concluding speech how Buddhists, Muslims and Sikhs have been victims to terrorism.”

With the movie still going strong at the box office, and an invitation by British Parliament to talk about the plight of Kashmiri Pandits adding to his glory, isn’t it a little too soon to announce his next project, The Delhi Files? Agnihotri explained, “I was sure of a trilogy from the very beginning. The three films are based on the three fundamental principles of democracy; first film The Tashkent Files is based on the right to truth; the second on the right to justice for Kashmiri Pandits and now The Delhi Files will stand for the right to life.”

While the director was tight-lipped about the subject of The Delhi Files, he said it has much more to offer than what the audience is expecting.

Agnihotri, who calls the making of The Kashmir Files no less than completing a PhD, said Bollywood films don’t spend much on research and take the audience for fools who would watch anything. He said, “I had long back retired from Bollywood as there are set rules in place for commercial and serious films.”

Both Agnihotri and Joshi said that they are committed to bringing out the truth at any cost. Pallavi said, “Our house is no less than a mad house and now our children are also taking to the film line. One of the girls who shouted ‘Free Kashmir’ in the film is my daughter.”

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