A week after Vivek Agnihotri’s The Bengal Files released across India on 5 September, the film is finally reaching Kolkata — though not in the way many expected. Instead of a theatrical release, a private screening has been arranged for 13 September at Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Bhasha Bhavan, inside the National Library. Scheduled for 4 pm, the event is strictly invitation-only.
The development was confirmed in a Facebook post by former Rajya Sabha MP Swapan Dasgupta, sparking fresh conversations about the film’s difficult journey in West Bengal.
Agnihotri has not held back in expressing frustration over the roadblocks faced by his film in Bengal. Speaking to NDTV, he said: “We opened the advanced booking and the theatres have been finalised. I’ve got to know through my distributors. The distributors had different religions in Bengal. It will create history. But I just learned that theatres are now refusing to show it because they fear that there will be a political turmoil.”
Despite its nationwide release, the absence of Bengal on the map has only fuelled the perception that the film’s themes — rooted in some of the state’s most turbulent historical episodes — remain politically charged.
Actor-producer Pallavi Joshi, who also stars in the film, has taken a more emotional approach. She wrote an open letter to President Droupadi Murmu, making an impassioned appeal: “Respected Madam President. With a heavy heart, I reach out to you, not for favours, but for protection. The Bengal Files, the final part of the Files Trilogy, releases on 5th September. It tells the long-suppressed truth of the Hindu genocide of Direct Action Day, the horrors of Noakhali, and the trauma of Partition. But in West Bengal, truth is under siege. Years before completion, the Chief Minister mocked the film.”
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With a cast led by Mithun Chakraborty, Saswata Chatterjee, Anupam Kher, Priyanshu Chatterjee and Darshan Kumar, The Bengal Files completes Agnihotri’s Files Trilogy, which began with The Tashkent Files (2019) and soared into the spotlight with The Kashmir Files (2022).
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