Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and his cast recently got together to talk about their upcoming film, The Kashmir Files. In an interaction with The Free Press Journal, they spoke at length about the research and emotions they felt while filming it. It stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar and others. It is slated to release on March 11.
Talking about the film, Vivek shares, “Since we shoot with the camera and see it on screen, we call and consider all that just a film. When I did Buddha In a Traffic Jam, Anupam Kher told me that the purpose of the film is to tell a story to wider audiences. The Kashmir Files isn’t a film for us; it is a mission. Imagine if someone tells you to vacate your own house overnight; how will you feel? However, massacres, genocides, persecutions happened earlier, but this is one of its kind of unfortunate incident that happened in the world. There’s nothing left today where yoga, Ayurveda, higher philosophies, Shiva, Saraswati were originated.”
Pic: Viral Bhayani
Elaborating further, Vivek adds, “Before rolling the film, Pallavi and I met over 700 people from the first generation victims as a part of the research. We made their video testimonials across USA, UK, Germany etc. We made our own tribunals and reported them like a war crime. Few interviews went for around one to two days. We also received testimonials from South Africa, Delhi, Australia and several other places. Each scene and dialogue of this film is factual and not written by me. This is the only film in the history of cinema that nothing in this is fictitious. However, we have tweaked the names of the victims under international etiquette and norm. We wanted to respect the dead.”
Pic: Viral Bhayani
Pallavi, who has also co-produced the film, says, “Every day, we were just listening to stories of the pain. I feel the brain stops processing the excessive pain after some time. Every single day, when Vivek and I used to reach back to the hotel, we used to gaze at the ceiling since we were sleepless for hours. It was impossible to emotionally unwind. There was a point when I told Vivek that I was going back as I wasn’t able to take more pain as we kept researching for about a month and a half. More than pain, it was guilt that being an Indian, these stories weren’t told to us.”
Pic: Viral Bhayani
An emotional Anupam explains, “It’s difficult to play a character who has gone through the same pain in real life. When I reached Dehradun to shoot the film, Puneet (Issar), Mithun da (Chakraborty), and Darshan were shooting already. The whole atmosphere on the sets was something else. It felt that something really important was being made. I was representing a normal Kashmiri Pandit from Kashmir on the sets and not as an actor. I couldn’t differentiate the emotions of Anupam Kher with that of my character Pushkar Nath. I have heard painful stories from my mother and maternal uncle which everyone kept burring under the carpet.”
Pic: Viral Bhayani
A numb Darshan Kumar reveals, “My first meeting for the film was with Pallavi ma’am, and she showed me a few video testimonials. I was speechless. When I met Vivek sir, he gave me the script, and while reading it, I felt the same pain. It took me about two weeks to detach myself from my character after I finished the shoot. I had sleepless nights while I was preparing my backstories for the role. I am playing a college student who is interested in politics and curious to know the truth.”
