A week after its all-India theatrical release on 5 September, Vivek Agnihotri's The Bengal Files will have a special screening in Kolkata on 13 September. The news was shared by former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta in a Facebook post.
What's Happening
The special screening of the film will take place at 4 pm on 13 September at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Bhasha Bhavan, National Library.
The film will have a closed-door screening, with attendance by invitation only.
This move comes after the film did not see a theatrical release in Bengal.
During a conversation with NDTV, Vivek Agnihotri said, "We opened the advanced booking and the theatres have been finalised. I've got to know through my distributors. The distributors had different religions in Bengal. It will create history. But I just learned that theatres are now refusing to show it because they fear that there will be a political turmoil."
Meanwhile, actor-producer Pallavi Joshi shared an open letter appealing to the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, for protection and support regarding the film's release in West Bengal.
An excerpt from the note read, "Respected Madam President. With a heavy heart, I reach out to you, not for favours, but for protection. The Bengal Files, the final part of the Files Trilogy, releases on 5th September. It tells the long-suppressed truth of the Hindu genocide of Direct Action Day, the horrors of Noakhali, and the trauma of Partition. But in West Bengal, truth is under siege. Years before completion, the Chief Minister mocked the film."
The film is the third instalment in Vivek Agnihotri's Files trilogy, following the National Award-winning movies The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022). It also stars Mithun Chakraborty, Saswata Chatterjee, Anupam Kher, Priyanshu Chatterjee, and Darshan Kumar.