Mamata Banerjee fears skeletons may tumble out with The Bengal Files: Vivek Agnihotri

Director Vivek Agnihotri claimed his film ‘The Bengal Files’ has hurt West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee because she fears it may expose skeletons from the past. In an exclusive interview with IndiaToday.in, the filmmaker expressed his dissent over the way the trailer launch of the film was halted and eventually cancelled in Kolkata last week.

Agnihotri said he is presenting the “untold story” of Bengal’s history, which may have upset the Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress. When asked why the Trinamool was vehemently opposed to ‘The Bengal Files’, the director said, “She (Mamata Banerjee) doesn’t want history to come out because when history comes out, lots of other skeletons will also pop out of the box – and some skeletons maybe of their family. Bad skeletons, not good skeletons.”

Banerjee, however, is widely seen as having built an independent political career. She was born into a non-political family. Her father, Promileswar Banerjee, was an independence activist but not a politician with dynastic influence. She rose through student politics, joined the Congress party in the 1970s, and later founded the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in 1998.

For Agnihotri, the CM weaponised the state power against him during the trailer launch event. He said, “When they cancelled the trailer launch, the state misused its power. They weaponised police to stop the trailer. But you know what? It’s just a trailer –picture abhi baaki hai. Let’s see what happens when the film releases on September 5. I pray to God that they are given some good sense.”

The National Award-winning filmmaker called the criticism of his film a denial of the rights of the people of West Bengal. “They understand that by attacking the film, they are denying the rights of millions of Bengalis, whose prestige, glory, heritage and great history are represented in the film. I think the biggest crime in this world is to suppress the expression of a person who has been hurt. The state government is doing that crime,” he explained.

Agnihotri highlighted that the authorities in West Bengal seem particularly hurt by the film’s claim of telling an “untold story”.

He shared, “I fail to understand what has hurt them, really. Are the Hindus not citizens of Bengal? I’ve been told by reliable sources that when the trailer launch was cancelled and the police came – those people who were actually stopping it told me in confidence later that their major problem is that it (the film) tells the ‘untold story’ of Hindu genocide. As if it didn’t happen – the Direct Action Day.”

Agnihotri claimed that ‘The Bengal Files’ features the persecution of Hindus in Bengal in 1946. He further said Kolkata is running on ‘gundaraj (rule of goons)’, not politics.

The film, which has been cleared by the censor board, presents the events of the Great Calcutta Killings-Direct Action Day and the Noakhali riots, which eventually led to the partition of Bengal into West Bengal and Bangladesh.

‘The Bengal Files’ also stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Namashi Chakraborty, Simrat Kaur and Darshan Kumar, among others. The film is slated to hit the screens on September 5.