'The Kashmir Files' director Vivek Agnihotri opens up on facing death threats, says 'Can't go out and meet my family...'

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New Delhi: Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri's 'The Kashmir Files' is one of those films that touched the hearts of millions with its story, characters and picturisation. The Director of the film received a lot of appreciation for his work but there is always a darker side very few people know about. 

'The Kashmir Files' released in March 2022 and crossed Rs. 340 crores at the box office. The film has a promising cast including Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Pallavi Joshi, Mithun Chakraborty and many more. Recently, the filmmaker claimed that he faced threats and was even questioned for the depiction of characters in the film. 

Comparing the situation to Steven Spielberg's 'Schindler's List,' Agnihotri stated some lesser-known facts in the latest interview. Calling for another freedom movement or cultural renaissance, he said the need of the hour was to free the country from fake secularism. "Even if you don't believe in god, no problem. In the end, you learn that you are that," he said after releasing the book The 10 Gunas (Mindsets) authored by Prof PR Mukund.

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"That's why you find people persecuted in their own country coming to India," Agnihotri said. 

Further, he added about the invaders who came to Kashmir, were persecuted in their own country and they took shelter. "We gave them refuge in our country. It is unfortunate that they deceived us and started looting and converting the people in Kashmir," he claimed. 

The filmmaker added, "If you look at the minorities, the world over it is a problem on how to deal with the Islamic minority. But, in India, you find all kinds of places of worship. Here, you welcome everybody and their religions. This is the open-source faith system. The close source faith system is: I tell you, therefore you believe. Who has written the code, I don't know. The code has said this is it, so you have to believe it. If you don't believe it you can't use the code. If you say anything against the code, we will destroy you. You have seen this recently in Udaipur."

Taking the example of the Udaipur tailor's murder, Agnihotri said, "Two men slit the throat of a tailor in Rajasthan's Udaipur and posted a video on social media where they claimed that they are avenging an insult to Islam following former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma's remarks on Prophet Mohammad. This triggered communal tensions in Rajasthan city. That's why in Indian culture there is no word for blasphemy. We are going through a strange kind of phenomenon. Here, what is true and correct for the world is being challenged by regressive systems. Therefore, a need for a cultural renaissance, a cultural revolution, is very very important in the country."

"I can't go out. I am a social person. I can't meet my own family. All my movement is restricted, this is so unfortunate," he said while adding that his "life has become like a person". 

Further, he added, "Imagine Steven Spielberg who made Schindler's List about the Holocaust. Imagine, Spielberg, getting security and threats after making the film. It never happened."

"I say when Mr. Spielberg makes the film and says six million Jews were killed, nobody in the world asks. Whatever he says, you believe it because in the moment of compassion and in a tragedy of such nature, you don't go on counting the dead bodies. There are dead bodies, that's enough," he concluded. 

'The Kashmir Files' became the highest-grossing Bollywood film in the year 2022.