Kolkata: Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri and his wife Pallavi Joshi, had approached a single-judge bench of the Calcutta High Court on Thursday, seeking dismissal of FIRs filed against the upcoming movie written by him titled “The Bengal Files”.
Joshi is the producer of the said movie.
An FIR was registered against the movie in Murshidabad district soon after the teaser campaign for the movie was released.
Later, another FIR was also registered at the Lake Town police station in Kolkata.
The main accusation in the FIR was that the movie might contain some sensitive matter that might hamper communal harmony in the state.
Now, Agnihotri and his wife have approached Calcutta High Court’s single-judge bench of Justice Jay Sengupta seeking dismissal of the FIRs.
“The Bengal Files”, is perceived to be the third part of the “Files” trilogy, the first being “The Tashkent Files” in 2019 and the second being the much-controversial “The Kashmir Files” in 2022.
Previously, the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government had been accused of issuing gag orders against feature films on allegedly “flimsy” grounds.
In May 2023, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee announced the ban on screening of the film “The Kerala Story” in West Bengal on the grounds that certain scenes in that movie could affect the peace and harmony in West Bengal.
Her decision attracted widespread criticism from the movie circles, rights bodies, and civil society nationally.
Later, the intellectuals in West Bengal got divided over the decision of the Trinamool Congress government to ban the screening of the movie in West Bengal.
However, in May 2023 only, the Supreme Court decided to set aside the ban on screening of “The Kerala Story” in West Bengal and observed that the legal provision could not be used to put a premium on public intolerance.
(IANS)
