Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri is facing backlash over his upcoming film The Bengal Files, which is scheduled to release on September 5. In an exclusive interview with NDTV's Padmaja Joshi, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri opened up about the recent name change of his upcoming film from The Delhi Files: The Bengal Chapter to The Bengal Files.
The director revealed that the decision was taken to avoid confusion and to reflect the subject matter of the movie better.
Agnihotri explained, "Earlier, the film's name was The Delhi Files: The Bengal Chapter because initially we were making it in two parts, and I had even shot a significant portion of the second part. But when I started marketing and promoting the film in March and April this year, people began assuming that The Delhi Files was about the 1984 Sikh genocide or the 2020 Delhi riots, which was not the case."
He added, "In India, unlike Hollywood, people are not used to subtitles like 'The Bengal Chapter' or 'This Chapter, That Chapter'. So I released a video and asked my audience what the name should be, given that the theme was Bengal. I received lakhs of responses, and 99.9% of people wrote The Bengal Files. So we sat, thought about it, and announced the new name. Since then, people have not asked what the film is about."
The director further clarified in another interaction, "The title changed because when I did a poll on social media, everybody suggested that when the film is about Bengal, it should be called The Bengal Files. That's why we changed the name."
Agnihotri, who is known for films like The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022), said that the new title communicates the theme more clearly. "Earlier, my idea was to have The Delhi Files Chapter 1: Bengal Chapter and the second one something else. But it wasn't communicating well, so we immediately corrected it," he said, adding, "I make people's films and I go by what people tell me. So my audience told me I should change the name, hence I changed the name."
Background
On June 12, Vivek Agnihotri released the teaser of The Bengal Files, which offers a glimpse into the socio-political state of Bengal in 1946.
The film stars Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumaar, Puneet Issar, Govind Namdev, Mohan Kapur, Palomi Ghosh, Divya Palat and others.
The film focuses on the turbulent history of Bengal during the 1940s, specifically the Great Calcutta Killings, Direct Action Day and the Noakhali riots.
Shortly after the teaser's release, the film faced legal challenges. An FIR was registered against it in Murshidabad district, followed by another at Lake Town Police Station in Kolkata. The complaints alleged that the film might contain sensitive material capable of disturbing communal harmony in the state.
On August 4, however, Justice Jay Sengupta of the Calcutta High Court imposed an interim stay on both FIRs. This development came after Agnihotri and his wife, actor-producer Pallavi Joshi, approached the court on July 31 seeking dismissal of the cases.
This is not the first time Agnihotri's films have faced political resistance. Previously, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government had been accused of issuing gag orders against films on allegedly "flimsy" grounds.
The Bengal Files is regarded as the third installment in Vivek Agnihotri's 'Files' trilogy. The first film, The Tashkent Files (2019), dealt with the mystery behind the death of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, while the second, The Kashmir Files (2022), focused on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Valley.
Both films generated intense debate and political controversy, with The Kashmir Files becoming one of the most talked-about films of recent years.
With The Bengal Files, Agnihotri now turns his lens on Bengal's troubled past in the 1940s. The film is scheduled to release on September 5.