How 'The Kashmir Files', Praised By PM Modi, Became A Runaway Success

The film has also come under bitter criticism as it's unprecedented for the government to put its weight behind a commercial movie.

Director Vivek Agnihotri's hotly-debated Hindi movie 'The Kashmir Files,' which received glowing endorsements from the ruling party and the Prime Minister himself, is racing towards the Rs 100-crore mark. The movie collected Rs 60.20 crore in the first five days. In comparison, one of the biggest recent Bollywood A-list releases, Alia Bhatt's "Gangubai Kathiawadi", took just Rs 57 crore in its first five days of sales last month.

The feature film, with a production budget of Rs 15 crore, is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from the Kashmir valley during the height of militancy in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir. The movie has generated mixed reactions and has also led to aggressive and tense sloganeering in movie theatres. 

Riding on overwhelming government support and tax breaks from several states across the country, the controversial movie has become a runaway success. It has also come under bitter criticism as it's unprecedented for the government to put its weight behind a commercial movie. Moreover, the sensitive political nature of the film and charges of inaccuracy/deliberate misrepresentation of facts has led to accusations of the government indulging in propaganda. 

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has also used the movie as an opportunity to slam his political opponents and critics, alleging that those who oppose it are the ones who tried to hide the truth about the violence inflicted on Hindus in what was India's only Muslim majority state.