congress MP Shashi Tharoor responded to social media attacks by filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and actor Anupam Cherothe two most prominent faces behind the recent blockbuster The Kashmir Fileswhich Tharoor had described as a ‘film promoted by the ruling party of India’.
Tharoor had tweeted about the film not securing a release in Singapore, to which Agnihotri and Kher had responded by appealing to Tharoor’s late wife Sunanda Pushkar, a Kashmiri Pandit. They asked him to honor her memory and not belittle the suffering of the Pandit community. Pushkar died in her hotel room in New Delhi in 2014.
Without mentioning Agnihotri or Kher, Tharoor posted a statement on Twitter clarifying that he had not seen The Kashmir Files and was simply tweeting facts. “At no time have I mocked or belittled the suffering of Kashmiri Pandits, whose plight I am deeply aware of, and to which I have repeatedly drawn attention over the years,” Tharoor wrote.
My statement in response to various comments on my tweet: https://t.co/7jlJDu6ZSc pic.twitter.com/ouZEQWoGS4
— Shashi Tharoor (@ShashiTharoor) May 10, 2022
“It was unjustified and despicable to drag my late wife Sunanda into this case. No one is more aware of her views than I am. I accompanied her to the ruined ruins of her childhood home in Bomai, near Sopore, and had conversations with her Kashmiri neighbors and friends, both Muslim and Hindu. One thing I know, unlike those who try to exploit her when she’s not around to speak for herself: she believed in reconciliation, not hatred,” he added.
The latter part of his statement seems to address the debate surrounding the film, which has been criticized for misrepresenting facts and fomenting division. Agnihotri has maintained that his only intention was to shine a light on a chapter in history that he believes has been ignored. The Kashmir Files became a word of mouth earlier this year, worth more than Rs 350 crore worldwide. It is the highest-grossing Hindi film in a year that has become infamous for delivering Bollywood flops.
