New Delhi, March 9: In a victory for “The Kashmir Files” and the many wanting to see the film, the Bombay High Court has rejected the plea to stall the release of the film. A bench of Justices Dipankar Dutta and MS Karnik said that a detailed order listing the reasons will be given later while dismissing the petition. At the start of the hearing, the judges asked the petitioner’s lawyer whether he bothered to read the court’s judgement against the PILs filed against the Sanjay Leela Bhansali diretorial “Gangubai Kathiawadi”. The high court had dismissed those petitions as the petitioners did not challenge the certificate issued by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) to the Sanjay Leela Bhansali film. Petitioner’s lawyer replied that they did see the order but did not have the time to challenge the CBFC certificate for “The Kashmir Files” as their constitutional rights were being infringed upon. Following this, the court dismissed the matter. The plea filed by a UP resident Inteyaz Hussain Sayed had sought stay on the film’s release on the grounds that the film’s trailer depicts the “alleged” Muslim killings of Kashmiri Pandits which hurt the sentiments of the Muslim community. Sayed claimed in this petition that the movie showed a one-sided view of the entire incident which may trigger the members of the Hindu community and possibly trigger violence and destruction across India. The movie “will not only hurt the religious sentiments of the Muslim community but also ignite emotions and inflame members of the Hindu community with the clear possibility of triggering violence in all parts of India,” according to the plea. The plea had also claimed that with scheduled elections in various states, there was possible scope of misuse of the trailer and the entire incident by political parties which could escalate into full-blown communal violence. Till the hearing of this plea, the petitioner hoped that the trailer of the film would be taken down immediately. The movie directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is an account generated by real life videos and interviews of the first-generation Kashmiri Hindus into the genocide of Kashmiri Pandits and seeks to represent it in a much more realistic take. Speaking on the film Agnihotri said “In late 80s and early 90s, there was an organized Genocide of Hindus in Kashmir Valley. This film is about this Genocide of Hindus, specifically about the inhuman and barbarian killings and rapes of innocent Kashmiri Hindus based on radical religious terrorism. Entire culture and diversity were destroyed.” “I believe there can never be any ‘other side’ of religious terrorism. I have presented all points of views, even that of hardened terrorists and separatists and left it for the audience to decide which ideology they want to stand for. “I shall not make any change in my film and I am willing to face consequences”, the filmmaker added. The filmmaker had shown his film in various screenings across the US and recently in Delhi receiving unanimous applause and standing ovation from audiences, many of whom had tears in their eyes and called it a gut-wrenching eye opener. The movie is distributed by Zee Studios and features an array of stellar actors starring Mithun Chakroborty, Anumpam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Chinmay Mandlekar, Prakash Belawadi, Puneet Issar in key roles. It will be released on March 11.
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