Even as the Vivek Agnihotri directed movie “The Kashmir Files” has been receiving an extremely positive response from the audience at large, attempts are afoot to suppress and discredit the movie at various levels and by various people/organizations across the country including Bollywood, multiplexes, film critics, and political parties among others.
Book My Show ticketing website appears to be a party to the ploy as indicated by one Twitterati who stated that despite 40% of the seats being empty, the website said that no tickets were available for ‘The Kashmir Files’ at Margoa’s INOX theatre. Similarly, there were no posters of the movie put up at the theatre whose staff is heard saying that they didn’t receive any poster of the film. It has also been highlighted in the video that posters of other films have been put up at the theatre.
After the incident came to light, Goa’s CM-elect Dr. Pramod Sawant tweeted to say that he has communicated with the INOX management and asked them to continue screening the film in addition to increasing the number of shows.
A similar incident of the film being suppressed in Assam’s Dibrugarh has come out on Twitter. The tweet indicates that besides only 2 shows being screened on two screens, unlike other Bollywood movies only a single small poster of this film has been put up at the theatre.
In Chhattisgarh, theatre owners have been accused of putting up house-full boards in a bid to turn away movie-goers from watching the film. If the allegations are true, then theatre owners appear to be a party to the conspiracy to ensure that people don’t watch the film that reveals the truth of Kashmiri Hindu ethnic cleansing.
PVR theatres have adopted a different strategy to stop people from watching the film. They allegedly switched off the air-conditioner deliberately. Even as the staff denies any conspiracy, citizens have said that only the AC of hall number 3 where the movie was being screened at City Centre mall had been switched off. The management offered to refund the ticket money instead of fixing the AC if it really had any technical issues as claimed by the staff.
At Noida’s GIP Mall, manager Ejaz Khan supposedly stopped the screening of the movie mid-way leading to the citizens protesting against the act.
While political parties from Congress to its ally in Maharashtra ‘Hindutva’ party Shiv Sena as also several ‘secular’ parties have termed ‘The Kashmir Files’ propaganda, theatres and ticketing websites have been trying every trick in their book to dissuade people from watching the movie. Despite these attempts, the citizens have been relentless in exposing the conspiracy and many have raised their voices against the bias exhibited by vested interests trying to suppress the movie by hook or crook.
(Featured Image Source: The Kashmir Files)
