‘Democracy Dead': Vivek Agnihotri Alleges Kolkata Police Halted ‘Bengal Files' Trailer Launch
Vivek Agnihotri alleged that the West Bengal Police halted the trailer launch of 'The Bengal Files' at "even a private hotel" in Kolkata.
Film director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri on Saturday alleged that the launch of the trailer of his next film 'The Bengal Files' was 'illegally stopped" – first in a theatre and 'now in a private hotel".
Sharing a video of the same on X, the maker of The Kashmir Files alleged that democracy was 'dead" in the land of Rabindranath Tagore and Swami Vivekananda.
'With anguish I inform you: Today West Bengal police, on orders of 'top authorities', illegally stopped the trailer of #TheBengalFiles. First theatres, now even a private hotel. Who fears the truth of Hindu genocide? And why? Democracy is dead in Tagore & Vivekananda's land," he said on X.
The videos shared by the filmmaker show the trailer of the upcoming film made on the partition of India and Direct Action Day being played on a giant screen until the Kolkata Police officials rush and turn off the screening.
This comes after the special screening of the film at a theatre in Kolkata was halted after the venue for the trailer launch of the film was cancelled, prompting Agnihotri to launch it in a 'banquet hall".
He alleged that this was being done under 'political pressure".
He said that he was informed by the organisers earlier in the day that they had to cancel the screening of the trailer due to political pressure in the state.
'Organisers told me that they can't show it because of political pressure. Then we talked to another multiplex chain. They also told us that there is a lot of political pressure and we will get stuck in a lot of trouble. And that's why we can't show it either. So when we didn't have any option left, where would we go? What would we do? What could be more saddening for a filmmaker than not being able to show his film in a theatre? The thing for which it was made. If someone writes a book and it is not shown in a bookshop, then we don't have any option," Agnihotri told news agency IANS.
'But my name is Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and I am not one of the losers. So I said, 'No problem, we will do it in a banquet hall'. This is my first time to launch the trailer of a film in a banquet hall like this. Our entire team had come here, after that it got cancelled. I don't know what they are afraid of. Why do they want to stop this film? Why do they want to suppress my voice? And a film which has got a CBFC certificate, which has been shown in 12 cities in America, that film is about Bengal," he added.
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