After the release of the Hindi film Kashmiri Files on March 11, a few pro-BJP supporters in Kerala claimed that the film was being screened in only a few theatres in the state. Later they claimed that more theatres in Kerala are now screening the film, on popular demand. However, the film exhibitors association of Kerala denied that there has been any such pressure. The film based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in 1990, is directed by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and stars Anupam Kher, a Kashmiri Pandit and Pallavi Joshi.
“The delay in the film having more screens comes from distribution issues. Now that the problem is being solved, the film is getting screened in more theatres. There has been no pressure to add more screens for the film. For theatre exhibitors, what matters is that a film brings a good collection. That is the only consideration for screening it in theatres. It is not about what the politics of the film is or who it stars,” says Vijayakumar, president of the Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala.
On Monday, March 14, there were eight shows of the film scheduled in various cinemas of Thiruvananthapuram. What appears to have triggered angry tweets from pro BJP accounts is a thread posted from the account of the Kerala unit of the Indian National Congress as the ‘facts of Kashmiri Pandits issue’, under the title #Kashmir_Files vs Truth.
Facts about #KashmiriPandits issue:
— Congress Kerala (@INCKerala) March 13, 2022
Pandits left the valley en masse under the direction of Governor Jagmohan who was an RSS man. The migration started under the BJP-supported VP Singh government. #Kashmir_Files vs Truth (2/n) pic.twitter.com/10aUmdHjWM
The tweets pointed out that the attack on the Kashmiri Pandits came from terrorists and they as well as the Kashmiri Muslims were victims. The Congress Kerala account also said that the exodus happened under the direction of the governor of Jammu and Kashmir of the time, Jagmohan Malhotra. "After the terrorist attacks, instead of providing Pandits security, BJP's own governor Jagmohan asked them to relocate to Jammu. A large number of Pandit families did not feel secure and left the valley in fear," said one tweet.
"BJP was engineering a Hindu-Muslim divide in the country over the Ram mandir issue in Ayodhya during the migration. Pandits’ issue suited BJP’s propaganda to create a fake outrage for electoral gain," another tweet said.
The tweets were condemned by BJP leaders of the state such as V Muraleedharan, Minister of State for External Affairs, and K Surendran, Kerala president of the party.
The Congress Kerala account had also included another tweet about the thousands of Muslims killed along with the hundreds of Pandits at the time, which it removed later on.
On Monday, the party added that it stood by what it said. “We stand by every single fact in yesterday's tweet thread about the #KashmiriPandits issue. However, we've removed a part of the thread, seeing the BJP hate factory taking it out of context and using it for their communal propaganda.”
There have been reports of BJP supporters calling for a boycott of Khan movies (referring to the three Khans of Bollywood) at the screening of the film. A video of the incident has been circulating on social media.
For the first time, a movie based on an extreme tragedy & exodus of Kashmiri Pandits is being weaponised to create hatred against the opposition & Muslim minorities. Instead of reconciliation & justice, this is the alarming sentiment that's being wildly reinforced. #KashmirFiles pic.twitter.com/RSAYIEv2zf
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) March 14, 2022
Amid all the hullabaloo, the IMDB page of the film, after receiving unusual voting activity, posted that it is going to use an alternate weighting method to determine the rating.