Vivek Agnihotri sends legal notice to Mamata Banerjee for ‘defamatory’ comments on The Kashmir Files

On May 9, director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri said that he has served West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee with a court notice for disparaging his film The Kashmir Files.

On Monday, Banerjee banned the showing of The Kerala Story and denounced The Kashmir Files as a film intended to degrade a certain group in society. Agnihotri claimed that he, his actor-wife Pallavi Joshi, and the producer Abhishek Agarwal sent the legal notice. 

He shared a copy of the document in his Twitter post. “I have, along with @AbhishekOfficl & Pallavi Joshi, sent a LEGAL NOTICE to the Chief Minister, Bengal @MamataOfficial for her false & highly defamatory statements made with malafide intention to defame us & our films #TheKashmirFiles & upcoming 2024 film #TheDelhiFiles,” the filmmaker tweeted.

The Kashmir Files, written and directed by Agnihotri, recounts the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Kashmir after terrorists massacred members of the community there.

The film, starring Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Mithun Chakraborty, and Pallavi Joshi, was one of the most financially successful Hindi films of the year despite receiving mixed reviews when it debuted in March 2022. Banerjee asserted on Monday that some "stars nominated and funded by the BJP" are currently producing a movie called Bengal Files.

“They came to Bengal also with some distorted, concocted stories. They are preparing a film ‘Bengal Files’. If they can prepare ‘The Kashmir Files’ to condemn Kashmiri people… Now they have defamed Kerala people and the Kerala state also,” she said in Kolkata, referring to the recent controversy over “The Kerala Story”.

The Kerala Story, a Sudipto Sen-directed film about women who were coerced into joining Islamic State (IS) and being converted, was released on May 5 to a great deal of political controversy. While Tamil Nadu multiplexes have cancelled its showings, it is now tax-free in Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.