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Vivek Agnihotri: “Success or failure I don’t change, This is not going to change me”
Pinning down Vivek Agnihotri for an interview was not easy. The Kashmir Files has turned Vivek’s life inside out.But he hasn’t changed.
“You know me from the time I made Chocolate in 2005. Even back then I couldn’t fit into the Bollywood mould. When I started my journey 12 years ago I decided I will make my kind of films and I will never make a star-driven film. I firmly believe cinema is the writer and director’s medium.”
The Kashmir Files is not a film. It’s a movement. Vivek Agnihotri is filled with gratitude at the stupendous success that’s come his way. “ Audiences the worldover are watching the film in pindrop silence. 3 hours and 50 minutes is not a joke. People are reaching out to Kashmiri Pandits all over the world.Why is it working so well in Canada? It started with two shows. Now it’s more than ninety shows. The film has connected Indians in conversations and debates everywhere.Ramu(Ram Gopal Varma) has made a video on the success of The Kashmir Files where he says explains why he hates my film.It’s a brilliant review .We were working on The Kashmir Files for four years. We used our own money. We mortgaged our home.We went to many parts of the world for research. And after all the expenses we didn’t even know what was going to come out of it.”
Vivek Agnihotri had great difficulty in getting a producer on board. “ But finally we had Abhishek Agarwal who came on board unconditionally. Then after the film was half-complete Zee also came on board. Bollywood producerswanted me to make typical potboilers which we were unwilling to do. We decided we will make our own research-based films with self-generated funds. This was our decision in 2010. We then made Buddha In The Traffic Jam, The Tashkent Files and now The Kashmir Files. Then The Delhi Files.”
Vivek Agnihotri admits he is clueless as to why Bollywood follows the star system and pays actors in multi-crores. “ I resigned from Bollywood long ago. Even while promotingThe Kashmir Files my wife (actress Pallavi Joshi) and I do the needful.Because we believe we are the creators of the product.We need actors not stars in our films.”
Vivek Agnihotri admits there were threats to his wellbeing after the controversial success of The Kashmir Files. “Yes, there have been threats. Recently two boys barged into our office when my wife and I were not there. Only a manager, a middle aged lady was here. They pushed her with the door, she fell they asked for me and then fled. I never spoke about this incident because I didn’t want such elements to get any publicity.I told them not to bother with the security. But they said they have to.”
The filmmaker won’t be flogging the ‘Files’ franchise further. “Coming up next is The Delhi Files and then I am done with the Files trilogy. No power on earth and no amount of money can persuade me to turn the Files into a franchise. It was always meant to be a trilogy. Nothing can change that. Those who know me from before would know that I’ve been making the films that I want to make for the last ten years.I am the last person who is going to think, ‘The audience is addicted to the franchise, so let’s make one more.’ I will never do that.”
So the Files are closed? “The Trilogy was planned as a trilogy. One day I was looking the the three pillars of democracy: truth justice and life . The Files trilogy was born from this tenet. The Tashkent Files was about the right to truth. The Kashmir Files is about the right to justice. The Delhi Files will be on the right to life. The fourth pillar of democracy is the audience. Let them decide what they want to see.”
Not just his film, Vivek feels the pandemic has changed the grammar of cinema entertainment. “Covid also changed a lot of things.Audiences are not going to clap for crap.You see for us(Vivek and Pallavi) cinema is not about networking and socializing, We don’t party. We don’t drink. We haven’t slept for more than four hours since we started working on Kashmir Files, not because we were out partying but because we were constantly checking and re-checking the logistics of the writing filming and release. We started with a mere 600 screens. Then suddenly it became a B and C centre film as well.So we had to provide screens to those centres.”
Lots of people are saying that the film is getting a tax exemption because of Vivek’s closeness to the BJP. Vivek vehemently opposes this view. “No! That’s not true. That’s the Government’s acknowledgement of of the film’s relevance. If they don’t make the film taxfree their voters would rebel against them.”
As for The Kashmir Files being labeled anti-Muslim Vivek protests, “Our intention was never to malign any community.I have not even spoken against Pakistan in my film. I believe my audience is intelligent enough to know that the villain in The Kashmir Files is terrorism. There is a line in my film where a character says even Muslims and other communities apart from Hindus are victims of terrorism. I will tell you one more secret. You remember the scene on a shikara where a Kashmiri tells Darshan Kumar what he(the Kashmiri) thinks about the situation. I told the Kashmiri to say everything that he feels . I told him to write the dialogues himself. That was a real Kashmiri Muslim boy who lives in Srinagar.And yet if the film is being branded anti-Islam then that’s politics. I am okay with that. What matters to me is that the film is reaching out and touching hearts.An 85-year old man and his 75-year wife who had never stepped into a cinema went to see The Kashmir Files. That is my real achievement .The film has gone to the villages now.”
The Kashmir Files has reactivated a the mass exodus into the theatres? Vivek is reluctant to take credit for it. “I had been fighting with the I & B Ministry in Delhi, Maharashtra government and with Uddhav Thackeray to reopen theatres after Covid. Nobody was listening. Then I fought for a hundred percent attendance in theatres while everyone was busy collecting fat pay cheques by selling their films on the OTT. They wanted to know why was Vivek fighting for re-opening of theatres?They said he was not getting any buyers on OTT , that’s why he was fighting for theatre. But I knew cinema needed to be revived. Today they are saying footfalls in not just the cinemas but shopping falls have revived because of The Kashmir Files.”
When I bring up the lack of support for the film from within the industry Vivek Agnihotri has a priceless explanation. “I resigned from Bollywood in 2010. We are a very small boutique filmmaking house.We make cinema out of passion.I am happy I don’t have friends in Bollywood. If I did I would somewhere be tempted to make them happy by making what they want me to make. Right now as I talk to you I can make lots and lots money and go home happy. But I can’t do that.It’s not in my DNA.”
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Shabana Azmi Breaks Her Wrist, Flies To Budapest For Spielberg

Shabana Azmi’s commitment to getting it right, no matter what it takes, is by now beyond legendary. She is known to go to extreme lengths for her characters, the quick-reference what-Shabana-can-do-for-a-role film being Shyam Benegal’s Mandi where she had put on 30 kgs to look like a ‘Madame’ and convey her message in a brothel.
Now , Shabana flies to Budapest on the night of 8 February in spite of having broken her wrist.
“What to do, I have to.I’ve to shoot another schedule of my second season of Halo(the series produced by Steven Spielberg) . There is no way I can postpone it. I am very upset with myself. It was such an unnecessary accident. I was in Jindal . I took a jump and landed with a fractured wrist, ” says Shabana angrily.
This is not the first fracture that Shabana has suffered in recent times. Before the wrist that’s broken now, she had broken the other wrist. And prior to that she had broken her shoulder.
“I’m supposed to be shooting till the 28th of February. And it’s all very tough physically rigorous scenes. I don’t know how I’m going to do it. I am really annoyed with myself for being careless.” Shabana sighed before signing off.
Knowing her the way I do,I can only say, nothing is impossible for Shabana Azmi.
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Shobita Dhulipala On Her Close Aquatic Connection To Her Character In The Night Manager

Sobhita Dhulipala has constantly tried to make an impression with her intriguing performances and roles. In The Night Manager she slips into the mysterious role of Kaveri.
Talking about her character, Sobhita Dhulipala says , “There’s a certain intrigue to Kaveri. On better days, you feel like you get a sense of who she is, but you could never be too sure of what she is.”
Being a water person Sobhita enjoyed her character’s aqueous antecedents, “There is a very visible parallel that’s drawn between Kaveri and water throughout the show.They both can be so gentle, so nourishing, but also very tumultuous and deep. Kaveri seems like that. She has this tenderness as well as a current within her.”
Sobhita comes from an aquatic family and feels a deep affinity to water. “I have in the past been compared with water’s energy and I thought it was a tremendous compliment. So, to be able to give form to that feeling, that connection I feel with it..it’s great. My father is a sailor. And I spent many of my younger years at sea, also the home I grow up in was by the shore. I also love the name Kaveri and I always thought when I have my own child, I’d name him/her by a river! So, I think there’s, resonance, all of it really comes together for me.”
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The Romantics Adi Chopra’s Show All The Way

Netflix’s The Romantics profiling the legend Yash Chopra in four episodes , happened only because Netflix gave complete creative control to Yash Chopra’s son Aditya Chopra, the scion of the Yash Raj family.
A source very close to the project reveals, “If it wasn’t for Adi’s nod, the project wouldn’t have happened. He not only greenlighted the project, he also personally supervised every aspect of the project. Smriti Mundhra is on board as the director of The Romantics. But it is Adi who decided what goes, and what not.”
Apparently the thirty-five interviewees speaking on Yash Chopra in The Romantics were all personally approved by Adi Chopra who also agreed to do his first video interview ever for the docu-pic on his distinguished dad.
Adi Chopra’s one and only print interview was with film critic/editor Khalid Mohamed.
The Romantics starts streaming on Netflix on Valentine’s Day February 14.
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I’m very excited to be doing my OTT debut: Shahid Kapoor

As Shahid Kapoor Gets Ready To Make His Digital Debut, He Takes Time Off For A Q & A With Subhash K Jha
Farzi is your first foray into the OTT space. How would you describe the experience? Is it any different from doing the films for the big screen?
I’m very excited to be doing my OTT debut, as everybody calls it. I think I did it because I love the directors Raj and DK and their work, and I actually really really liked the idea and the concept behind Farzi, the world of counterfeiting . I felt Sunny was a character that was as challenging as some of my most challenging characters as I’ve done yet. So I immediately wanted to do it.
And was it any different shooting for an OTT series?
Of course, it’s different because you’re watching the character over five to six hours as opposed to maybe two to two and a half hours. So it’s a deeper, wider opportunity to bring a character to life, that’s it.
Farzi gave you the opportunity to work with the great Vijay Sethupathi and also the creators Raj and DK. So what was that experience like?
With Raj and DK, I’ve loved Family Man very much and we’ve met over time and always wanted to collaborate. So I was really looking forward to it. In fact, I asked them if they have a show because they were calling me for a movie because they didn’t really expect… they didn’t think after Kabir Singh, I’d like to do something like that , or whatever. But I actually asked them for it and probed for it, and then they actually told me about this concept which we had discussed as a movie earlier.
So why was the feature film converted into a digital series?
It was just too elaborate to turn into a movie, to fit into a movie. It was only extremely sensible of them to turn it into a show because it deserves that much screen time.
What was it like working with Vijay Sethupathi?
With Vijay sir, it’s been a pleasure. And I want to see how people receive the show. He’s a fantastic actor who has always rediscovered himself and given people completely different experiences when he has come on the big screen. So it’s a privilege to have him on the show. And I had a blast working with him.
Shahid, it’s been twenty years since you started as a leading man. How do you look back on your career so far?
I feel very fortunate to still be here. And I feel grateful that people find my work relevant. I feel there’s a lot more that I would like to do. And I think I am as charged as I was at the age of 21, giving my first shot, as I am today. And I think that’s the best part of the entire journey, that I still am as excited and as curious to get on that film floor and give my next shot. I think that’s what drives any artist.
Tell me about your forthcoming projects?
I’ve got Farzi coming out on 10 Feb. And then there’s a movie with Ali Abbas Zafar, which is an action thriller, a slick action fun film, which will come out in the middle of this year. And then there’s a high-concept quirky love story that I’m doing with Maddock Films, which is directed by a new director. His name is Amit Joshi. It has me and Kriti Sanon in it, and Dharam ji and Dimple ma’am and various other very talented people.
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