Director Vivek Agnihotri has been the centre of attention ever since his film ‘The Kashmir Files’ hit the silver screens in March this year. In fact, amid the box-office slump that Bollywood is facing, ‘The Kashmir Files’ is one of the few Bollywood projects that has managed to rake in moolah, both in India and worldwide. It is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley in early 1990.
Recently, when filmmaker Anurag Kashyap mentioned that he did not watch ‘The Kashmir Files’ due to ideological differences and that it should not be picked as India's official entry to the Oscars, Vivek ended up lashing out at him.
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Now Vivek has reacted to why Hindi films are not working in general, as compared to his film. Citing the examples of ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’, ‘Shamshera’, ‘Laal Singh Chaddha’, he told ETimes, "Look at all the films that were released after COVID. Ranveer Singh's film ‘Jayeshbhai Jordaar’ was about female infanticide. But what did they do with the promotions? He was dancing with girls at a fashion show, showing his cleavage and all that. I am not against it. Please don't misunderstand me. If it was ‘Dhoom’, I would have understood it. But you've made a film on a serious subject. Not even once did anyone from the team speak about the theme of the film."
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He further pointed out that stars and the makers of these projects have not spoken about the film's subject during the promotions.
"Same thing happened with Ranbir Kapoor’s film Shamshera. Not even once did they talk about the father-son angle or the dacoit system. It is my open challenge. You ask anybody on this Earth who hasn’t watched Laal Singh Chaddha, what the film is about. Nobody can tell you because they haven’t spoken about it. They were promoting the film with what other stars had to say about the film, they spoke about the songs and where they shot the film. But not even once did they talk about what the film's story was about,” Vivek signed off.
