Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files is currently creating waves at the box office. The man himself remains remarkably grounded, gentle and affable, not willing to wallow in the success and the money that comes with it. Amidst a hundred hectic happenings in his life, Vivek takes time off to speak to Subhash K Jha.
I have been waiting to talk to the Man Of The Moment?
(laughs) Is that me? No no, I too have been waiting to talk to you. But there are so many things happening all at once. My life has turned inside-out. But I remain the same. Success or failure I don’t change. This is not going to change me.
Glad to hear that. Vivek, are you under threat? You have been provided with security by the Government?
Yes, there have been threats. Recently two boys barged into our office when my wife and I were not there. Only a manager, a middle-aged lady was here. They pushed her with the door, she fell they asked for me and then fled. I never spoke about this incident because I didn’t want such elements to get any publicity. I told them not to bother with the security. But they said they have to.
So what's next in the pipeline? The Bollywood Files?
(laughs) No no no. Coming up next is The Delhi Files and then I am done with the Files trilogy. No power on earth and no amount of money can persuade me to turn the Files into a franchise. It was always meant to be a trilogy. Nothing can change that. I am the last person who is going to think, ‘The audience is addicted to the franchise, so let’s make one more.’ I will never do that.
So the Files are closed?
It was planned as a trilogy. The Files trilogy was born from the tenet of the three pillars of democracy: truth justice and life. The Tashkent Files was about the right to truth. The Kashmir Files is about the right to justice. The Delhi Files will be on the right to life. The fourth pillar of democracy is the audience. Let them decide what they want to see.
From Chocolate to bitter chocolate?
(Laughs) Yeah, you know me from the time I made Chocolate in 2005. Even back then I couldn’t fit into the Bollywood mould. When I started my journey 12 years ago I decided I will make my kind of films and I will never make a star-driven film. I firmly believe cinema is the writer and director’s medium.
Of course it is. But why doesn’t mainstream Bollywood accept this fact?
I have no clue. I resigned from Bollywood long ago. Even while promoting the film my wife Pallavi and I do the needful. Because we believe we are the creators of the product. We need actors not stars in our films.
Anupam Kher as a Kashmiri Pandit himself has conferred a lot of credibility to the product and Darshan Kumar’s monologue on the heritage of Kashmiri Pandits?
Of course of course.
Vivek, The Kashmir Files has crossed all boundaries of the box office. Its success is comparable with something like Baahubali. It has Bachchhan Paandey running for cover. How do you explain this phenomenon?
I don’t. I can’t explain it. As we talk it grows in numbers. Did you see Bachchhan Pandey? I thought it would be a hilarious film!
Do you think you have changed the grammar of cinema entertainment?
Covid also changed a lot of things. Audiences are not going to clap for crap. You see for us (Vivek and Pallavi) cinema is not about networking and socialisng, We don’t party. We don’t drink. We haven’t slept for more than four hours since we started working on Kashmir Files, not because we were out partying but because we were constantly checking and re-checking the logistics of the writing, filming and release. We started with a mere 600 screens. Then suddenly it became a B and C centre film as well. So we had to provide screens to those centres.
Ramu (Ram Gopal Varma) has made a video on the success of The Kashmir Files where he explains why he hates my film. It’s a brilliant review. We have been working on The Kashmir Files since four years. We used our own money. We mortgaged our home. We went to many parts of the world for research. And after all the expenses we didn’t even know what was going to come out of it.
Did you have difficulties getting a producer?
Yes. But finally, we had Abhishek Aggarwal who came on board unconditionally. Then after the film was half-complete Zee also came on board.
But your last film The Tashkent Files had also made money?
No. that made no difference to Bollywood producers. They wanted me to make typical potboilers which we were unwilling to do. We decided we will make our own research-based films with self-generated funds. This was our decision in 2010. We then made Buddha In The Traffic Jam, The Tashkent Files and now The Kashmir Files. Then The Delhi Files.
What are your feelings at the moment?
Gratitude. Audiences all over the world are watching the film in pin drop silence. 3 hours and 50 minutes is not a joke. People are reaching out to Kashmiri Pandits all over the world. Why is it working so well in Canada? It started with two shows. Now it’s more than ninety shows. The film has connected Indians in conversations and debates everywhere.
Do you hope to see Kashmiri Pandits get back to their homeland during your lifetime?
During my lifetime, yes. But if someone were to say that it will happen in 5-7 years I would have to say that’s optimistic .
Lots of people are saying that the film is getting a tax exemption because of Vivek’s closeness to the BJP?
No! That’s not true. That’s the Government’s acknowledgement of the film’s relevance. If they don’t make the film tax-free their voters would rebel against them.
Why is your film being labelled anti-Islam by some?
See, our intention was never to malign any community. And we didn’t. I have not even spoken against Pakistan in my film.
I believe my audience is intelligent enough to know that the villain in The Kashmir Files is terrorism. There is a line in my film where a character says even Muslims and other communities apart from Hindus are victims of terrorism.
I will tell you one more secret. You remember the scene on a shikara where a Kashmiri tells Darshan Kumar what he (the Kashmiri) thinks about the situation. I told Kashmiri to say everything that he feels. I told him to write the dialogues himself. That was a real Kashmiri Muslim boy who lives in Srinagar.
But the film is still being branded as anti-Islam?
That’s okay. That’s politics. I am okay with that. What matters to me is that the film is reaching out and touching hearts. An 85-year old man and his 75-year wife who had never stepped into a cinema, went to see The Kashmir Files. That is my real achievement. The film has gone to the villages now. Let me tell you another angle to this.
I had been fighting with the I&B Ministry in Delhi, Maharashtra government and with Uddhav Thackeray to reopen theatres after Covid. Nobody was listening. Then I fought for a hundred percent attendance in theatres while everyone was busy collecting fat pay cheques by selling their films on the OTT. They wanted to know why was Vivek fighting for the re-opening of theatres? They said he was not getting any buyers on OTT, that’s why he was fighting for theatre. But I knew cinema needed to be revived. Today they are saying footfalls in not just the cinemas but shopping falls have revived because of The Kashmir Files.
What about the lack of empathy from the film industry?
As I said, I resigned from Bollywood in 2010. We are a very small boutique filmmaking house. We make cinema out of passion. I am happy I don’t have friends in Bollywood. If I did I would somewhere be tempted to make them happy by making what they want me to make. Right now as I talk to you I am making lots and lots of money, with which I can go home happy. But I can’t do that. It’s not in my DNA.
Subhash K Jha is a Patna-based film critic who has been writing about Bollywood for long enough to know the industry inside out. He tweets at @SubhashK_Jha.
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