“Vulgar, Propaganda”: International Film Festival of India Jury Head On Anupam Kher's ‘The Kashmir Files’
The closing ceremony of the 53rd IFFI witnessed controversy with festival jury chair Nadav Lapid stating that members of the jury were disturbed by ‘The Kashmir Files’, a movie he described as “vulgar” and “propaganda”.
‘The Kashmir Files’ is one of the most successful Hindi movies of 2022, but it also remains among the most polarising Bollywood movies in recent history. The movie, which revolves around the killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, was met with a thunderous response from the audience earlier this year. However, the movie evoked some strong political opinions as well. Many BJP leaders even advocated for the movie to be seen by maximum number of people, and it was even made tax-free in several states.
On Monday, however, the jury head of the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), Nadav Lapid made some comments about ‘The Kashmir Files’ at the closing ceremony of the event.
He termed the movie as "propaganda" and "vulgar".
"It seemed to us like a propagandist movie inappropriate for an artistic, competitive section of such a prestigious film festival. I feel totally comfortable to share openly these feelings here with you on stage. Since the spirit of having a festival is to accept also a critical discussion which is essential for art and for life," he said in his address.
The video of this address has gone viral on social media.
Chair of the Jury of Goa Film Festival says that the Jury felt that Kashmir Files was a vulgar propaganda film, inappropriate for the film festival pic.twitter.com/FKTF93ZlRY
— Prashant Bhushan (@pbhushan1) November 28, 2022
‘The Kashmir Files’ was helmed by Vivek Agnihotri, and it starred Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi in the lead roles.
The 53rd edition of the International Film Festival of India had also held a special screening of 'The Kashmir Files' in the panorama section.
