Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma is the latest BJP leader to slam Israeli filmmaker Nadav Lapid for criticising 'The Kashmir Files' at IFFI, saying “jury members aren't god”.
“Jury members aren't god. We found the film 'The Kashmir Files' to be nice and promoted it. We have seen ourselves what happened in Kashmir, what authority do they (jury members) have to slam the movie,” news agency ANI quoted Sarma as saying on Tuesday.
The attack by the Opposition party leaders came after Lapid, the jury head of the 53rd International Film Festival of India (IFFI), on Monday described the Hindi film as “propaganda” and “vulgar”.
In his speech at the closing ceremony of IFFI 2022, Lapid said he was "disturbed and shocked" to see the film being screened at the film festival.
"All of us were disturbed and shocked by the movie 'The Kashmir Files'. It felt to us like a propaganda and vulgar movie that was inappropriate for an artistic and competitive section of such a prestigious film festival.
'The Kashmir Files', which was released in theatres on March 11, was part of the Indian Panorama Section at IFFI and was screened on November 22.
{{/usCountry}}'The Kashmir Files', which was released in theatres on March 11, was part of the Indian Panorama Section at IFFI and was screened on November 22.
{{/usCountry}}Earlier, Sarma had slammed his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal over his remarks on 'The Kashmir Files' and asked him not to be "anti-Hindu" stating the latter has no right to humiliate the society.
Kejriwal, in his speech in the Delhi assembly, had accused the BJP leaders of "promoting" the movie and asked the makers of the movie to upload the film on YouTube which attracted backlash against the chief minister on social media.
The BJP had attacked Kejriwal for making several movies in the past tax-free in the national capital but not the Vivek Agnihotri film.
"You make it tax-free or not, you do not have the right to humiliate and insult us. You may do whatever you want, but do not be 'anti-Hindu' so openly. If our Hindu samaj (society) is in this condition, it is because we are more anti-Hindu within the Hindu family. Otherwise, Hindu civilisation once used to show the path to the world," Sarma had said.