Vivek Agnihotri sends legal notice to Mamata Banerjee for comments on ‘The Kashmir Files’

Mumbai/Kolkata: Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri on Tuesday said he has sent a legal notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee for defaming his movie “The Kashmir Files”.

Officials in the chief minister’s office said they had no information on the legal notice.

Banerjee on Monday ordered a ban on the screening of “The Kerala Story” and criticised “The Kashmir Files” as a movie made to humiliate one section of society.

Agnihotri announced this through a Twitter message, where he has also uploaded a copy of the legal notice.

In his message, Agnihotri pointed out his objections to the chief minister’s announcing ban on the screening of ‘The Kerala Story’ in the state on Monday, where she claimed that films like ‘The Kashmir Files’ and ‘The Kerala Story’ were meant for humiliating a certain section of the society.

“I have, alongwith @AbhishekOfficl & Pallavi Joshi, sent a LEGAL NOTICE to the Chief Minister, Bengal @MamataOfficial for her false & highly defamatory statements made with malafide intention to defame us & our films #TheKashmirFiles & upcoming 2024 film #TheDelhiFiles,” Agnihotri said in his Twitter message.

“They are trying to create division among the people on the basis of religion and caste. That is why ‘The Kashmir Files’ was made just to malign the people of a particular community. And now we have ‘The Kerala Story’, which is yet another untrue story with distorted facts,” the chief minister said on Monday while announcing the ban on the screening of ‘The Kerala Story’.

The announcement of the ban has attracted scathing criticism from the opposition BJP, which is even planning to challenge it in the court.