The trailer for the third film in the ‘Files’ trilogy, which explores West Bengal’s political violence, was met with a divided public response and accusations of sabotage from the filmmakers at its Kolkata launch.
August 16, 2025: The trailer for Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s movie The Bengal Files, which fans had been waiting for, came out on Saturday. However, the movie’s premiere in Kolkata was marred by a big disturbance. The filmmaker said that the event was ruined, which sparked a lot of public and political debate even before the movie came out.
The trailer, which takes place in West Bengal’s turbulent political past, says it tells a story based on genuine events and testimony that the creators say have been kept out of the public conversation. There are a lot of powerful lines in the trailer, like a voiceover that says, “This is West Bengal; two constitutions run here, one for Hindus and one for Muslims.”
Agnihotri told the reporters after the occurrence that the trailer launch was stopped when the wires to the equipment were severed. He said that the West Bengal government was a “dictatorship” and “anarchy,” and that the film’s provocative subject matter was the reason for the alleged sabotage. Pallavi Joshi, an actress and producer, also talked about the event, saying, “Such a thing did not happen even in Kashmir,” which suggests that freedom of speech is more limited in Bengal.
People’s reactions to the trailer have been very different. Supporters on social media are calling the movie “brave” and “uncompromising” in its quest to tell the truth, but detractors are calling it a “propaganda film” meant to divide people ahead of the state’s 2026 elections.
Mithun Chakraborty, Anupam Kher, Pallavi Joshi, and Darshan Kumarr are all in the movie. Chakraborty said during the occasion that the movie is “everything the audience never expected” and that it wants to “make a difference and show what people need to see.”
The third movie in the “Files” trilogy, after The Tashkent Files and The Kashmir Files, is called The Bengal Files. It will come out in theaters on September 5, 2025.