Director Vivek Agnihotri, known for divisive films like The Kashmir Files (2022), recently struck down comparison with directors Anurag Kashyap and Anubhav Sinha. He also took a dig again at Anurag over his “drinking.”
During an appearance on Shubhankar Mishra’s podcast, when the host told him that many people consider him to be “right-wing Anurag Kashyap”, Vivek was swift to strike down the comparison. “I don’t drink like him, though,” he said, adding “People who like Anurag and watch his films only focus on the fault lines of this country. I focus on the greatness of this nation.”
Vivek also defended the kind of films he makes and cited reasons as to why he felt compelled to make them. “This was my choice, the trilogy, and I decided to make these movies back in 2010. There have been several documentaries made on the Gujarat riots. People have already talked about it, and there is nothing new to bring to the screen.”
Vivek also distanced himself from Anubhav Sinha. Shubhankar told Vivek that when Anubhav made an appearance on the podcast, he told him that he would not be willing to work with Kangana Ranaut because of their ideological differences. Anubhav said, “Agar aadmi hi na pasand ho, toh kaam kaise kare (If you don’t like the person, you can’t work with them).”
Vivek said, “That is Anubhav’s own thinking; I am too wise for that. I can draw that line between the people I am working with. I don’t have any personal conversations with the people that I am working with, and many of the people in my movies don’t believe in the same ideologies that I do. So many people in the Bengal Files are themselves Bengali, but I work with national award-winning actors who are professional enough to get the job done.”
After The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022), Vivek is now coming up with the final installemnt of the trilogy with The Bengal Files which is scheduled to release on September 5. The film features Darshan Kumaar, Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Dibyendu Bhattacharya and Saswata Chatterjee.