Vivek Agnihotri Calls Out Bollywood’s ‘Half-Truth’ on Partition, Prepares to Tell Bengal’s Forgotten

Mumbai:

Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, known for critically acclaimed films The Kashmir Files and The Tashkent Files, is gearing up for the final installment of his Files Trilogy, The Bengal Files. The film, already stirring conversation and controversy ahead of its release, aims to shed light on a lesser-known chapter of India’s Partition.

Speaking on The Right Angle with Sonal Kalra, Season 2, produced by Gautam Thakker Films, Agnihotri highlighted how Bollywood has shaped public perception of Partition largely through Punjab’s lens. “When I ask people about the first visual image of Partition that comes to their mind, everybody thinks of dead bodies coming in trains and all of this happening in Punjab. Bollywood has contributed to creating a half-truth in people’s minds. But in reality, the entire playground, the Kurukshetra, is in Bengal. Bengal has been divided thrice: first in 1905, into Hindu Bengal and Muslim Bengal, then again in 1947, between East Bengal and West Bengal, and then in 1971, when it was culturally destroyed,” he said.

With The Bengal Files, Agnihotri says he intends to tell a story one that delves into Bengal’s overlooked and painful history of Partition.