Vidhu Vinod's Shikara angers Kashmiri pandit woman, draws flak from others in community

The woman, who was present at a special screening of the film in New Delhi, got up from her seat and accused Chopra of "playing politics".

In a video which went viral on social media, the woman was heard saying, "...you haven't shown radicalism.......rape, murder which we had suffered were not shown in the film. Muslim actors had played the characters very well. But in place of them, Kashmiri Pandits could have been starred.

"Why did you play this politics? Mubaraak to your commercialism. As a Kashmiri Pandit, I disown your movie. I disown it."

Chopra, who had tried to portray the ethnic cleansing of Kashmiri Pandits from Jammu and Kashmir in 1989-1990, stayed calm, acknowledged the woman and said he would make a sequel of the film.

"I will make a sequel for you," the director was heard saying. He also added that one was free to interpret the film in his own way.

Slamming Chopra, journalist Aarti Tickoo Singh said, "A substantial part of Bollywood remains the disgrace it has been. No moral clarity, no intellect, no sense of history but insufferable hubris. Vidhu Vinod Chopra, through his several utterances, has demonstrated that he belongs to that club.

As it is, Bollywood has neither the ability nor the courage to make anything in the league of Schindler’s List or The Pianist. Chopra ji should stick to romance and not try his hand at historical tragedies."

On a cold, dark night of Jan 19, 1990, the Pandits including the Sikhs and Hindus were forced out of Kashmir. 

Not featuring any big Bollywood stars, Chopra cast Aadil Khan and Sadia in the film which released on Feb 7.

Regarding casting, Chopra had earlier stated, "I wanted to have full new people on board because if I had cast any Hindi film actor then Shikara would have been fake. Then the film would have become Bollywood (he means typical Bollywood film).

I felt the film would not have seemed true if any of the popular Bollywood actors had worked. So I wanted real people (on board) and most actors in the film are from Jammu and Kashmir actually."

Commenting on the film, columnist Sunanda Vashisht, who had articulated the plight of Kashmiri Hindus at US human rights hearing just months ago, tweeted, "Friends, I have not seen Shikara. I cannot comment on it till I have seen it. I will give my opinion when I watch it. Remember Shikara has opened the floodgates. Many more stories need to be told, many more stories will be told. Let the conversation begin."

At the US hearing back in November 2019, Vashisht had said, "ISIS level Islamic terror was unleashed on Kashmiri Hindus 30 years back."

"An Islamist State of Kashmir where other religions are not welcome and tolerance of any other viewpoint is absent is no citadel of Human Rights," she had said at the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission Hearing in the US, reminding all of the time when "when voices blaring from mosques in Kashmir said they wanted Kashmir without Kashmiri Hindu men but with women."