Vivek Agnihotri’s directorial The Kashmir Files had released on March 11 on limited screens across India. The film which was made on a small budget also did not have massive promotions. However, the positive word-of-mouth publicity of the film attracted the audience to watch the film in theatres. Within a week of its release, the screen count for the film also increased by 8 times. The film that narrates the story of the exodus of the Kashmiri Pandits during the Kashmir Insurgency stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Darshan Kumaar, Pallavi Joshi, among others.
Pallavi Joshi plays the role of professor Radhika Menon who believes in the ‘Kashmir Cause’. The actor who is also the wife of director Vivek Agnihotri has been a part of the project since day 1. When Vivek Agnihotri had reservations about making the film, he had discussed the same with Pallavi.
At a recent press conference in Delhi celebrating the success of the film, Pallavi revealed she had no idea of what had happened in Kashmir in 1990. “I did not know about Kashmir. We have several Kashmiri Pandit friends in the film industry. But in the last 32 years, Kashmiri Pandits have not been vocal about their pain. When we would ask someone they would not say the details. So I never knew the complete truth about Kashmir. So when Vivek told me that he wants to make a film on it, I said, “What about it?”. I thought he wanted to make a film like Mission Kashmir. So I told him what is the point of making it? What have we got to do with it? But when Vivek told me about it, I was left speechless,” she said.
“I thought about it for a lot of days and did not say yes immediately. The film is our way to say sorry to the Kashmiri Pandit community and the state of Kashmir for sidelining them and their problems. We took this decision and also involved our kids in it so that they don’t feel like their parents hid anything from them while making a decision that can prove life-threatening,” she added.