‘The Kashmir Files’ wins award for best film about national integration

Many had questioned the factual accuracy of the movie and the communal tone of the discussion around it.

Aug 24, 2023 - 21:30

‘The Kashmir Files’ wins award for best film about national integration

Vivek Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files on Thursday won the Nargis Dutt Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration, the jury of the 69th National Film Awards announced.

The movie is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Valley in the late 1980s and early 1990s due to militancy. It was released on March 11 last year.

Many people had questioned the factual accuracy of the film and the communal tone of the discussion around it. For instance, they had pointed out that the Congress was not in power at the Centre when the Pandit exodus occurred and said that the governor of the state who facilitated the flight of the community had been approved by the Bharatiya Janata Party.

The Kashmir Files has been endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many other senior leaders of the BJP. Several BJP-ruled states had exempted the movie from entertainment tax.

In May last year, Singapore had banned The Kashmir Files, saying that the film could cause enmity between different communities and disrupt religious harmony in the country.

In November, Nadav Lapid, who headed the jury at the International Film Festival of India, had described The Kashmir Files as a “propaganda [and] vulgar movie”.

In his speech, Lapid had said he and other jury members were “shocked and disturbed” that the The Kashmir Files had been included in the...