Update (11 April 2022):
Another post with an image of ‘The Kashmir Files’ director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri with PM Modi is being widely shared with a claim that Vivek Agnihotri has donated 200 crore rupees to the PM Relief Fund. However, there are no news reports about Vivek Agnihotri donating 200 crore rupees to PM Relief Fund. Moreover, the image shared in the post is from March 2022 when the ‘The Kashmir Files’ team met PM Modi. Vivek Agnihotri had tweeted the same visuals on 12 March 2022. Aaj Tak team got in touch with the Vivek Agnihotri’s PR team who clarified that the message about Rs. 200 crore donation is just a rumour.
A post is being shared on social media claiming that ‘The Kashmir Files’ film director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri has recently pledged to build houses for Kashmiri Hindus from his movie profits. Let’s verify the claim made in the post.
Claim: ‘The Kashmir Files movie’ director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri pledged to build houses for Kashmiri Hindus from his movie profits.
Fact: ‘The Kashmir Files’ director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri did not make any such announcement to build houses for Hindus in Kashmir. The ‘Karni Sena’ national president Suraj Pal Ammu had recently appealed to ‘Zee Studios’ and Vivek Agnihotri to pledge 50% of the ‘The Kashmir Files’ profits for the welfare of Kashmiri Pandits. While responding to a similar request from an IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh, Vivek Agnihotri sarcastically tweeted asking him to give his appointment to exchange ideas on how they can help Kashmiri Pandits from the profits of his movie and his power as an IAS officer. Hence, the claim made in the post is FALSE.
When we searched to check whether the Kashmir Files film director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri had made any such announcement to build houses for Hindus in Kashmir, we could not find any on the official Twitter handle of Vivek Agnihotri. If Vivek Agnihotri had made such a promise, several mainstream news websites would have published articles reporting that information. But we could not find a single article reporting this news on the internet.
Suraj Pal Ammu, the national president of ‘Karni Sena’, had recently appealed to ‘Zee Studios’ and Vivek Agnihotri to pledge 50% of ‘The Kashmir Files’ movie profits for the welfare of Kashmiri Pandits. A few news articles that reported this information can be seen here and here. Suraj Pal Ammu warned ‘The Kashmir Files’ filmmakers that if they failed to contribute film profits to displaced Kashmiris welfare, it would be presumed that they had produced the movie only to cash in on the sufferings of the displaced people and had no genuine concern for their welfare.
While responding to a similar demand from an IAS officer from Madhya Pradesh, Vivek Agnihotri through a tweet requested his appointment to exchange ideas on how they can help Kashmiri Pandits from his movie profits and his power as an IAS officer, and the royalty that the IAS officer receives on his books. Reporting Vivek Agnihotri’s sarcastic response to Madhya Pradesh IAS officer, several news websites published articles. They can be seen here and here.
To sum it up, ‘The Kashmir Files’ film director Vivek Agnihotri did not pledge to build houses for Hindus in Kashmir.
