Rajput organisation Karni Sena has urged the producer and director of the Hindi film The Kashmir Files to set aside half of the profits from it for the welfare of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, The Tribune reported.
The group made the appeal to the producer, Zee Studios, and director Vivek Agnihotri.
“A majority of the states have declared the movie tax-free to enable the common man to watch it,” Suraj Pal Amu, the Karni Sena chief said. “The producer and director should come forward and donate 50% net profit from the movie for the welfare of the displaced Kashmiri Pandits to show solidarity with the cause espoused in the film.”
Amu claimed that if Zee Studios and Agnihotri did not do so, it would be assumed that they made the movie only to earn money from the pain of those who were displaced.
The Kashmir Files is about the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits from the erstwhile state in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to militancy. The film was released on March 11.
In the past 10 days, the Bharatiya Janata Party has been actively promoting the film. The movie has received the endorsement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many other senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders. Several BJP-ruled states including Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Gujarat, have also exempted the movie from entertainment tax.
Opposition parties have questioned the factual accuracy of the film and the communal tone of the discussion around it. They have said that the Congress was not in power at the Centre when the displacement happened and claimed that the governor of the state who facilitated the flight of the community had been approved by the BJP.
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said on March 18 that the film was far from the truth and said that people should find ways to “heal divides and not add to them”.
Since the release of The Kashmir Files, many social media users have posted videos where members of the audience could be seen shouting anti-Muslim slogans in movie theatres.
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