Faced criticism which Steven Spielberg hasn’t, claims ‘The Kashmir Files’ director Vivek Agnihotri

PTI, Jul 24, 2022, 8:13 AM IST

Image credit: PTI / File

Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri claimed on Saturday he faced threats and was questioned for the depiction of characters in his film ‘The Kashmir Files’ and said probably Steven Spielberg would not have faced so much criticism for Holocaust drama ‘Schindler’s List’.

Calling for another freedom movement or cultural renaissance, he said the need of the hour was to free the country from fake secularism.

There are two kinds of faith systems in the world with one being the open source faith system where one can imagine one’s god in whichever way one wants. ”Even if you don’t believe in god, no problem. In the end, you learn that you are that,” he said after releasing the book The 10 Gunas (Mindsets) authored by Prof P R Mukund, here.

Perhaps, India is the only country which followed and also perhaps the only surviving open source faith system. ”That’s why you find people persecuted in their own country coming to India,” Agnihotri said.

The invaders who came to Kashmir were persecuted in their own country and they took shelter. ”We gave them refuge in our country. It is unfortunate that they deceived us and started looting and converting the people in Kashmir,” he claimed.

India is the only country in the history of humanity which nurtures religions in the world while all other societies in the world have destroyed or killed other religions, he further claimed.

”If you look at the minorities, world over it is a problem on how to deal with the Islamic minority. But, in India, you find all kinds of places of worship. Here, you welcome everybody and their religions. This is the open-source faith system,” he said.

”The close source faith system is: I tell you, therefore you believe. Who has written the code, I don’t know. The code has said this is it, so you have to believe it. If you don’t believe it you can’t use the code. If you say anything against the code, we will destroy you. You have seen this recently in Udaipur,” Agnihotri further said.

Two men slit the throat of a tailor in Rajasthan’s Udaipur and posted a video on social media where they claimed that they are avenging an insult to Islam following former BJP spokesperson Nupur Sharma’s remarks on Prophet Mohammad. This triggered communal tensions in the Rajasthan city.

That’s why in Indian culture there is no word for blasphemy, Agnihotri said. ”We are going through a strange kind of phenomena. Here, what is true and correct for the world is being challenged by regressive systems. Therefore, a need for a cultural renaissance, a cultural revolution, is very very important in the country,” he said.

”I can’t go out. I am a social person. I can’t meet my own family. All my movement is restricted…this is so unfortunate,” he said while adding that his ”life has become like a person”.

”Imagine Steven Spielberg who made Schindler’s List about the Holocaust. Imagine, Spielberg getting security and threats after making the film. It never happened,” he said. But this happens in our country because of ignorance and journalists ask him very often why he had claimed 4,000 people were killed, Agnihotri said.

”I say when Mr Spielberg makes the film and says six million Jews were killed, nobody in the world asks. Whatever he says, you believe it because in the moment of compassion and in a tragedy of such nature, you don’t go on counting the dead bodies. There are dead bodies, that’s enough,” he said.

Also, he thanked Tamil Nadu for the overwhelming response to his film on the exodus of Kashmir pandits.

Tamil Nadu BJP chief K Annamalai too participated in the book release function.