The Bengal Files, which opened today (5th September) all over the world, could not release in West Bengal due to the reluctance of cinemas to screen the film. National multiplex chains, like single-screen cinemas in the state, refused to allot any shows to the film fearing vandalism by the ruling Trinamool Congress party’s volunteers.
The film’s trailer launch in Calcutta a couple of weeks back was disrupted by vested interests. The film, directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri, is about the Direct Action Day in Calcutta in 1946, when thousands of Hindus were slaughtered by members of the minority community.
The filmmaker had recently appealed to West Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee to allow the film’s release in her state but to no avail. Producer and actress Pallavi Joshi even wrote to President Droupadi Murmu to intervene and allow the film to hit the screens in West Bengal.