Vivek Agnihotri sends legal notice to Mamata Banerjee over her comments on 'The Kashmir Files'

Kolkata: Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri on Tuesday revealed on Twitter that he had sent a legal notice to the West Bengal Chief Minister, Mamata Banerjee for her alleged derogatory comments about him and his film 'The Kashmir Files', a day after she announced a ban on The Kerala Story.

Agnihotri along with his actor wife Pallavi Joshi and film producer Abhishek Agarwal have asked Mamata to “tender unconditional apology” by “withdrawing all the allegations” against them and their films on May 8.

In his message, Agnihotri pointed out his objections to the chief minister's announcement of a 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.

While addressing the media on Monday, announcing the ban on the screening of ‘The Kerala Story’, Mamata had said, "What was 'The Kashmir Files'? 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.

Agnihotri shared a copy of the four-page-long notice sent to Mamata on Twitter. "BREAKING: 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", he wrote in his Twitter message.

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

The Kerala Story, produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in the lead roles. The trailer of the film originally claimed that 32,000 women from the state went missing and later joined ISIS.

The teaser led to a huge row with Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan terming the film as "propaganda" by "the Sangh parivar".

Following criticism, the film's teaser on YouTube which initially read as "heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32,000 females in Kerala..." was toned down to "true stories of three young girls from Kerala."

A petition was also filed at the Supreme Court seeking a stay on its release on grounds of "worst kind of hate speech" and "audio-visual propaganda".

Congress leader Shashi Tharoor had accused the film's makers of indulging in "gross exaggeration" and "distortion" of the state's reality.

Amid the controversy, The Kerala Story has made Rs 45 crore at the box office.