Mumbai: Vivek Agnihotri’s blockbuster ‘The Kashmir Files’ is once again creating ripples, off the screen. On Tuesday (May 10), news reports kept trickling in that Singapore has banned the film on the grounds that it could disturb religious harmony. In the latest tweet, Agnihotri has taken on Arvind Kejriwal, Shashi Tharoor and Twinkle Khanna by calling them “genocide deniers”. “Dear genocide deniers, still want to call it ISLAMOPHOBIC and half-truth? Dear @ShashiTharoor and @ArvindKejriwal, still feel like laughing? Dear star-wife, still wanna make nail-files?,” Agnihotri tweeted, while sharing an ANI news which said, separatist leader Yasin Malik has pleaded guilty before the NIA court. Recently, the court had ordered the framing of charges against several separatist leaders including Yasin Malik under UAPA.
GM.
Hypocrites don’t like people with conviction.
Like Cockroaches come out with a little vibration, similarly hypocrites come out to attack you with your little success.
Make friends with your enemies but never with hypocrites & opportunists. #CreativeConsciousness
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 11, 2022
Kejriwal had questioned the movie and BJP’s intent in the past. “In the last 25 years, since the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits, there has been a BJP government at the Center for 13 years. BJP government has been there for the last 8 years, but not even a single Kashmiri Pandit has been settled back there. BJP politicised Kashmiri Pandits’ atrocities. Now, they are making films about their tragedy and earning money. Kashmir Files earned about Rs 200 crores,” Kejriwal had said.
Twinkle Khanna had taken a dig at Kashmir Files in a newspaper column and had said she will make a movie called ‘Nail File’ on a disastrous manicure. “…at least it’s better than putting the final nail into the communal coffin,” Twinkle had written.
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The Kashmir Files: Vivek Agnihotri-Shashi Tharoor’s spat
Agnihotri and Tharoor had also got in to a spat yesterday (May 10). The whole controversy started when the MP from Thiruvananthapuram shared a news report on Twitter about the ban on the film in Singapore. “Film promoted by India’s ruling party, #KashmirFiles, banned in Singapore,” the Congress leader tweeted. In his reply to Tharoor, Agnihotri called Singapore the “most regressive censor in the world”.
“Dear @ShashiTharoor, FYI, Singapore is most regressive censor in the world. It even banned The Last Temptations of Jesus Christ (ask your madam). “Even a romantic film called #TheLeelaHotelFiles will be banned. Please stop making fun of Kashmiri Hindu Genocide,” Agnihotri tweeted, apparently referring to the incident where Pushkar was found dead at a Delhi five star hotel in 2014.
After a netizen informed him that Pushkar was also a Kashmiri Hindu, the director asked Tharoor to delete his earlier post and “apologise to her soul”. “Hey @ShashiTharoor, Is this true that Late Sunanda Pushkar was a Kashmiri Hindu? Is the enclosed SS true? If yes, then in Hindu tradition, to respect the dead, you must delete your tweet and apologise to her soul,” he wrote.
Actor Anupam Kher also joined the debate and slammed Tharoor for his tweet. “Dear @ShashiTharoor! Your callousness towards #KashmiriHindus genocide is tragic. If nothing else at least for #Sunanda’s sake who was a Kashmiri herself, you should show some sensitivity towards #KashmiriPandits & not feel victorious about a country banning #TheKashmirFiles!” he tweeted.
In a cutting retort, Tharoor posted a statement on Twitter and, without naming Agnihotri and Kher, said he tweeted a “factual news item” this morning, with no comment on its contents or the film. He also said that he has not seen the film. “At no point did I mock or disparage the sufferings of Kashmiri Pandits, of whose plight I am intimately aware, and to which I have repeatedly drawn attention over the years,” Tharoor said.
“Dragging my late wife Sunanda into this matter was unwarranted and contemptible. No one is more aware of her views than I am. I have accompanied her to the destroyed ruins of her ancestral home in Bomai, near Sopore, and joined her in conversations with her Kashmiri neighbours and friends, both Muslim and Hindu. “One thing I know, unlike those attempting to exploit her when she is not around to speak for herself: She believed in reconciliation, not hate,” the Congress leader said.
My statement in response to assorted comments on my tweet: https://t.co/7jlJDu6ZSc pic.twitter.com/ouZEQWoGS4
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 10, 2022
Ever since the release of the film, it has been courting controversies even while it became a big Box Office hit.
