Veteran actor Mithun Chakraborty accuses the Mamata Banerjee-led government of orchestrating a “conspiracy” to obstruct the trailer launch of Vivek Agnihotri’s film. He states that any film attempting to show historical reality is unfairly targeted as politically motivated.
September 3, 2025: As the premiere date for Vivek Agnihotri’s movie The Bengal Files gets closer, the director has been asking West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee more and more to make sure the movie has a smooth run in theaters. The movie, which is the last part of the “Files Trilogy,” will come out in theaters on September 5, 2025.
Agnihotri said in a recent video message on social media that theater owners in the state are under “immense political pressure” and threats from Trinamool Congress (TMC) supporters to stop them from showing the movie. He told the Chief Minister that it was her “constitutional duty” to preserve free speech, especially since the CBFC had already cleared the film.
Since the unveiling of the movie, there has been a lot of talk about it. It is based on the Great Calcutta Killings and Direct Action Day in 1946. Agnihotri has always said that the movie is not propaganda but a “hard-hitting” look at a section of history that he thinks has been hidden.
Mithun Chakraborty Stands Up for the Movie
Mithun Chakraborty, who plays a partially silent old man and a survivor of the 1946 violence in the movie, has also spoken out in favor of it. Chakraborty said in a recent interview with The Indian Express that the film conveys an important reality that is frequently not told. He had already said that the government of West Bengal was behind a “planned conspiracy” to stop the trailer for the movie from coming out last month.
First Reviews and Legal Problems
Some international audiences who have seen the movie have called it “hard-hitting” and “gut-wrenching,” but a comprehensive public evaluation is still to come. The CBFC gave the movie a “A” rating, and it lasts 204 minutes.
The family of historical figure Gopal Mukherjee is still suing the movie, saying that it doesn’t fairly show him. According to reports, the filmmakers have replied to the legal letter, saying that they did a lot of study to make their portrayal of Mukherjee.
The Bengal Files is also planned to be available for streaming on the Zee5 platform when it has finished its run in theaters.