Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is irked with director Anurag Kashyap over his recent comment on 'The Kashmir Files' Oscar bid. Recently, in an interview with Galatta Plus, Anurag talked about India's entry at the Oscars this year and expressed hope that the Vivek Agnihotri directorial isn't nominated for the Academy Awards.
'India might have a nomination in the final five if RRR is the film they pick. I don’t know what film anybody is going to pick. I hope not The Kashmir Files,' he said.
Reacting to this, Agnihotri tweeted: 'The vicious, genocide-denier lobby of Bollywood has started their campaign against #TheKashmirFiles for #Oscars, under the leadership of the maker of #Dobaaraa.'
Now, in a conversation with Hindustan Times, Vivek said that Anurag's comment 'wasn’t hurtful' as he has 'faced worse criticism'.
'These people have been running a campaign against me for many years. In this case, it was a wrong precedent. This is ethically wrong. You can share your preference, but why are you saying which film shouldn’t go (to the Oscars)?,' he said.
The director said that he has 'never looked up to the Oscars', but he is speaking up because it's important to defend the film.
He further listed a few points that made him upset about Anurag Kashyap’s comment. He asked, 'If somebody is saying it (The Kashmir Files) shouldn’t go to the Oscars, the first question is: Why is he so scared of the film? Second: Why doesn’t he want the stories of Hindu genocide to be told to the world? Thirdly, is he a genocide-denier?”
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