Kolkata: ‘The Bengal Files’ has run into fresh legal trouble.
A new FIR has been registered against director Vivek Agnihotri on charges of “wrongfully” describing freedom fighter Gopal Mukherjee aka Gopal Patha as a “butcher” in the movie, reported IANS.
The trailer of ‘The Bengal Files’ was launched on Saturday in Kolkata amid controversy, with Agnihotri accusing the police and authorities of trying to block the event.
Mukherjee’s grandson Shantanu Mukherjee, who filed a police complaint, said that the family has taken exception to the way his grandfather has been portrayed in the movie without their permission.
“Secondly, we take strong objection to describing our grandfather as a kasai (butcher) in the movie, which is disrespectful. From where did they get this wrong information? I think Vivek Agnihotri should research more on this. That’s why we are protesting and will continue to do so. We have sent a legal notice to Vivek Agnihotri and also filed an FIR,” the grandson said.
“Besides being a part of the freedom fighters’ group ‘Anushilan Samity’, my grandfather owned two goat meat shops. He was a wrestler. He took to arms to protect people from the communal violence in Kolkata in 1946,” Shantanu said.
The new complaint comes after two FIRs were earlier registered against the movie, one in Murshidabad soon after a teaser of the film was released and another at Lake Town police station in Kolkata. The complainants alleged that the movie might include some sensitive matter that could hamper communal harmony in the state.
Agnihotri and his actor-producer wife Pallavi Joshi approached the Calcutta High Court on July 31, seeking dismissal of the two FIRs.
A single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta on August 4 imposed an interim stay on the FIRs filed against the upcoming movie.
‘The Bengal Files’, jointly produced by Abhishek Agarwal, Pallavi and Agnihotri himself, deals with one of the darkest chapters in Indian history — Direct Action Day of 1946, the Calcutta Killings and the Noakhali riots.
Featuring Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar and Pallavi Joshi in key roles, the movie is the third part of the ‘Files’ trilogy – following ‘The Tashkent Files’ (2019) and the controversial ‘The Kashmir Files’ released in 2022.