Vivek Agnihotri’s Controversial Film 'The Bengal Files' Hits Theatres Today
Vivek Agnihotri’s much-discussed and highly controversial film The Bengal Files has finally been released in theatres across India today, September 5, 2025.
Billed as the third and final chapter of Vivek Agnihotri’s The Files Trilogy, following The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022), the movie has arrived on the big screen after weeks of political storms, legal battles, and heated debates.
With a staggering runtime of 204 minutes, the film is one of the longest Indian releases in recent times and claims to take viewers into one of the most turbulent chapters of Indian history—the communal violence in Bengal during the 1940s.
The Bengal Files dramatises the tragic events surrounding Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946, also remembered as the Great Calcutta Killings.
The violence that erupted in Calcutta soon spread across the Bengal Presidency, culminating in the Noakhali riots and incidents in Tipperah and Comilla.
Agnihotri frames these events as a suppressed genocide, claiming that mainstream historical accounts deliberately ignored or downplayed the scale of the atrocities.
Alongside this historical backdrop, the film follows the journey of a criminal investigator working on a missing person case, whose inquiry unravels a network of corruption, betrayal, and political intrigue, while another character reflects on the devastating communal tensions that ultimately paved the way for Partition.
Also, read| Blog| The Bengal Files: History Or Propaganda? Why Vivek Agnihotri Is Repeating His Old Playbook
Features an ensemble cast led by Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Anupam Kher, Simrat Kaur, Saswata Chatterjee, Rajesh Khera, Namashi Chakraborty, Puneet Issar, Priyanshu Chatterjee, Dibyendu Bhattacharya, Sourav Das, and Mohan Kapur.
The road to release for The Bengal Files has been fraught with controversy. Just a day before its premiere, producer and actress Pallavi Joshi alleged that theatre owners in West Bengal were being intimidated under political pressure, resulting in what she called an “unofficial ban.”
In a letter addressed to President Droupadi Murmu, she appealed for the protection of the film’s constitutional right to be screened. The dispute added to an already tense atmosphere after the Kolkata Police abruptly halted the trailer launch in August, citing a lack of licensing permissions.
Producer of #TheBengalFiles, Pallavi Joshi, writes an open letter to the President of India:
URGENT APPEAL:
Your Excellency, @rashtrapatibhvn,“As Producer of #TheBengalFiles, I am pained that multiplex chains in Bengal have refused the film’s release under political pressure… pic.twitter.com/ERTLvqxp3y
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) September 4, 2025
Agnihotri hit back, accusing the West Bengal government of suppressing his film for political reasons, while insisting that his work is an attempt at historical truth-telling rather than propaganda.
One of the sharpest controversies has emerged over the portrayal of Gopal “Patha” Mukherjee, a historical figure known for defending Hindus during the 1946 riots.
His grandson, Shantanu Mukherjee, moved the Calcutta High Court, accusing Agnihotri of depicting his grandfather in a dishonourable manner and questioning how the filmmaker could remain on the Central Board of Film Certification while simultaneously running his own production house.
Sourav Das, who plays Gopal Patha, has since distanced himself from the uproar, clarifying that he was only performing a character and was not responsible for the historical interpretation attached to the film.
Actor Victor Banerjee recently urged the President of India to ensure peaceful screenings of the film, free from intimidation and political interference, emphasising that the rights of both artists and audiences must be protected.
Meanwhile, Agnihotri himself has appealed to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee not to restrict the film’s release, asserting that his project is an artistic interpretation of history and not a tool for division.
