Kolkata, Jun 20 (PTI) A civil society organisation on Friday attacked the BJP, accusing the party of attempting to sow communal discord in West Bengal through the upcoming Hindi film ‘The Bengal Files’, directed by controversial filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri.
‘The Bengal Files’ delves into the communal violence in undivided Bengal during the 1940s.
‘Desh Bachao Ganamancha’, a civil society group known for its pro-TMC stance, held a press conference here, where its members and several eminent personalities alleged that the film was part of a “communal agenda” orchestrated by the BJP ahead of the 2026 Assembly elections, aimed at distorting Bengal’s syncretic culture and dividing its people.
Former state minister Purnendu Basu, filmmaker Haranath Chakraborty, economist Abhirup Sarkar, author Abul Bashar, industrialist C K Dhanuka, and several other public figures from various walks of life were present at the meet.
“The BJP and RSS are trying to incite riots in Bengal through provocative politics. This film, The Bengal Files, directed by Agnihotri, is a deliberate distortion of Bengal’s history, just like his earlier propaganda film The Kashmir Files, which was promoted by none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi for political gain,” Basu claimed.
The official teaser of ‘The Bengal Files’ starring Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher and Pallavi Joshi was released a week ago and the movie is scheduled to hit the theatres on September 5.
Referring to the teaser, Basu said, “Showing an effigy of Goddess Durga engulfed in flames is deeply offensive to every Bengali. We worship Durga as our daughter. Such an insult will never be accepted.” He also questioned Agnihotri’s prior remarks in a media interview, in which the director claimed to have predicted communal unrest in Murshidabad and Malda district a year before the incidents.
“How did he know a year ago that these areas would witness unrest? Is he involved in orchestrating these incidents? Investigators should look into this,” Basu demanded.
The upcoming film is the third instalment of a trilogy, which includes Agnihotri’s ‘The Tashkent Files’ (2019) and ‘The Kashmir Files’ (2022).
Singer Saikat Mitra slammed the misrepresentation of Bengal’s revolutionary icons in Bollywood films.
“Just like ‘Kesari 2’ portrayed Khudiram Bose as Khudiram Singh and Barin Ghosh as Barin Kumar, now The Bengal Files is continuing the same trend of distorting history,” Mitra said.
Chakraborty added that merely casting a few Bengali actors does not make a film representative of the state or its culture.
The speakers unanimously asserted that Bengal will reject any attempt to enforce a communal narrative and that the state’s intellectual, cultural and social fabric will remain untouched by “hate-driven politics.” Earlier this month, Agnihotri announced that his upcoming film ‘The Delhi Files: The Bengal Chapter’ has a new title — ‘The Bengal Files’. PTI PNT NN
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