Filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is gearing up to finish the pre-production work of his highly-anticipated next, ‘The Kashmir Files’ – an unreported story of the most tragic and gut-wrenching genocide of Kashmiri. Following the huge critical acclaim of his last release, ‘The Tashkent Files’ in April last year, the filmmaker-author is set to weild the megaphone as the movie goes on floors this summer.
The filmmaker believes ‘The Kashmir Files’ is a small step towards letting the world, especially his countrymen, know about the state of the plight of Kashmiri. With a strong belief that ‘The Kashmir Files’ is for the Kashmiri and by the Kashmiri, the critically-acclaimed filmmaker has extended a special invitation to all the Kashmiri apprentices.
It’s learnt that Vivek, who has already locked the final draft of the movie, wants to involve Kashmiri as part of his film crew. Doing so, the filmmaker has decided to hire the services of five talented people from the valley, thereby giving them the option of working in different departments of the film’s production team including direction, cinematography, editing, film marketing, etc as per their individual expertise.
Vivek, whose ‘I Am Buddha Foundation’ mentors and trains young, needy and disadvantaged people, informs, “I am very passionate about mentoring, training and channelising the youth energy of India because I believe the youth of India is extremely creative and if we can channelise their energies in the right direction, we can make India a global leader in the creative and innovative areas. I Am Buddha Foundation has successfully mentored over two dozen people.
“It’s a known fact that a lot of Kashmiri boys and girls don’t get jobs and they are disadvantaged because of the kind of sufferings their families have gone through; therefore we thought to bring in five Kashmiri boys or girls into the filmmaking process by training them and giving them the exposure. They will help us in making this movie an enriching experience by providing us with their valuable information and guidance regarding the culture or instances that we will incorporate in the film. It’s also our contribution to heal the society by giving opportunities to them,” he adds.
Featuring Anupam Kher in a pivotal role, ‘The Kashmir Files’ is slated to release on the auspicious occasion of India’s 73rd Independence anniversary in 2020.
