Gulshan Devaiah Slams Vivek Agnihotri For ‘Exploiting’ Kashmiri Pandits’ Pain In The Kashmir Files: ‘I’m Critical About…’
June 28, 2024The Kashmir Files: A Blockbuster Hit With Controversy
Vivek Agnihotri’s film, The Kashmir Files, has been a major turning point in his career. Although the movie caused a lot of debate, it resonated deeply with many Kashmiri Pandits. Made for a relatively small budget of 15 Crore rupees (around $1.9 million), the film went on to become a huge box office success, earning a whopping 252.90 Crore rupees (around $32 million).
Actor Gulshan Devaiah recently criticized Agnihotri, calling him more of a marketing expert than a filmmaker. He also expressed his disapproval of how the film’s promotion used real footage of Kashmiri Pandits suffering during their exodus from Kashmir.
In an interview, Devaiah said that Agnihotri is a skilled marketer with a large fan base and has achieved a lot of success as a filmmaker and writer. However, he disagreed with some aspects of The Kashmir Files. He specifically mentioned the use of footage showing the pain of Kashmiri Pandits on social media to promote the film. Devaiah felt this was exploitative.
“You’re taking advantage of someone’s real pain and suffering,” he said. “Even if the film is about them, I don’t think it’s right to use their real emotions for publicity. That’s exploitation in my opinion. That’s the one thing I criticize about the film. Otherwise, it was an average movie, and I think he’s an average director at best.”
The Kashmir Files featured a cast of well-known actors, including Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, and Pallavi Joshi. The film released in theaters on March 11th, 2022, and is currently available to stream on the Zee5 platform.
Devaiah’s next film will be Ulajh, directed by Sudhanshu Saria. This movie boasts a star-studded cast including Janhvi Kapoor and veteran actors like Rajendra Gupta and Adil Hussain.
