Subhechcha Ganguly 
Israel’s government and ambassador to India today blasted Israeli director Nadav Lapid for calling “The Kashmir Files” at the International Film Festival of India (IFFI) in Goa a “propaganda” and “vulgar movie.” A day after criticising the film at the festival’s closing ceremony yesterday, envoy Naor Gilon also expressed his regret to India in a “open letter” on Twitter. Nadav Lapid is the festival jury’s chair.
The high-level response from Israel came after Nadav Lapid, the jury chair of the International Film Festival of India 2022, referred to the film directed by Vivek Agnihotri as vulgar and expressed his shock at seeing it in a festival’s competition section.
Following the backlash, many BJP leaders spoke out in support of the director while the left-wing lobby was seen to be supporting his remarks. The actor Anupam Kher joined the director Vivek Agnihotri in criticising the act in a video that was released.Interestingly, despite being an ally of Israel, PM Modi today made public a message he had written on November 2 in which he expressed India’s support for Palestine and expressed the hope that they would soon become a state.
The Kashmir Files was included in the schedule for the 2022 edition of IFFI’s Indian Panorama segment. The schedule also featured “Jai Bhim,” “Major,” “Ariyippu,” and “RRR,” among other important movies. At the box office, the movie made over Rs 250 crore.
