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The Bengal Files Trailer: No-show in Kolkata
The Bengal Files trailer was subsequently launched on YouTube.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Sun, 17, Aug 2025
- 01:03 EDT
- 11
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Screengrab from video of Agnihotri questioning the Kolkata Police officials who stopped his movie's trailer launch in private hotel / X/@Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri
The Bengal Files, director Vivek Agnihotri's upcoming film, got hit with back-to-back political roadblocks in Bengal on Aug. 16.
The film's trailer was scheduled to be premiered in Kolkata but the theater release was canceled hours before the scheduled launch. The launch venue was then shifted to a private hotel but was again interrupted by the West Bengal administration, leading to a political ruckus with Agnihotri alleging attack on his rights.
The Bengal Files is an upcoming Indian Hindi-language political drama film directed by Vivek Agnihotri, focusing on the 1946 Great Calcutta Killings and communal violence in Bengal, set for release on September 5, 2025. Starring Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, and Pallavi Joshi, it is the final installment of Agnihotri's "Files Trilogy," following The Tashkent Files and The Kashmir Files.
In a video posted on X, Agnihotri alleged that political pressure from the top-most echelons of Bengal politics was behind the theater chain's decision to cancel the screening and said, "Our trailer, like any other trailer was scheduled to be launched in a film theater"
ALSO READ: Vivek Agnihotri alleges multiple FIRs filed over The Bengal Files
Just landed in Kolkata and learnt that the venue for the trailer launch of #TheBengalFiles is cancelled.
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) August 15, 2025
Who wants to suppress our voice?
And why?
But I can’t be silenced. Because truth can’t be silenced.
ट्रेलर तो कोलकाता में ही लांच होगा।
Pl share this video and support… pic.twitter.com/xraD7w9sRb
He added, "We had all the permissions and correspondences in writing and that's why our entire team reached Kolkata. But upon reaching here, I learnt that the program has been cancelled and it has been done so under the unwritten and unofficial excuse that there is a lot of political pressure on them (the movie theatre in which the launch was scheduled) and they do not want any kind of political turmoil."
Questing the alleged political forces behind the cancelation of the screening, he said, "Who are those people, which is that political pressure, which is the political party that wants to suppress our voice and why does it want to do that?"
He added, "It's a very sad commentary on our democracy. Does India have two constitutions, the Indian constitution and the constitution of Bengal?"
In the social media post, he emphasized his decision to launch the trailer in Kolkata itself no matter what. Subsequently, the launch was moved to a hotel in Kolkata itself but this was also stopped mid-way through the screening, citing lack of required permissions for such a showing to be organized.
Agnihotri confronted the police officials and asked, "If we are doing something illegal, why did you not stop it in the morning, why are you stopping it now?"
He also noted, "You can see how many police personnel are there as if we are thieves. They have stopped a CBFC (Central Board of Film Certification)-approved trailer at a private place. This is nothing but dictatorship and fascism."
Sharing news of the incident on X, he asked, "Who fears the truth of Hindu genocide? And why?"
He also declared, "Democracy is dead in Tagore & Vivekananda’s land."
The trailer of the film was subsequently launched on YouTube and the film is scheduled for worldwide premiere on Sept. 5.
In memory of the victims of Direct Action Day (16th August 1946), I present to you the official trailer of #TheBengalFiles — the boldest film ever on the untold story of the Hindu genocide.
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) August 16, 2025
In cinemas 5th September 2025.
Please bless us.
Watch on YouTube:… pic.twitter.com/pIFvyTGI3d
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