The Bengal Files: Agnihotri’s Final Blow
The first two installments of The ‘Files’ Trilogy (The Kashmir Files and The Tashkent Files) shook the very land we Indians stood on. They exposed sensitive topics that no one was ready to address. That is the magic of Vivek Agnihotri. He is bold, fearless, and outright straightforward. And he is ready to scream out the stories that nobody is even ready to whisper. Now, he promises to haunt his audience in the third and final installment of the trilogy-The Bengal Files (previously called The Delhi Files: The Bengal Chapter).
Agnihotri has revealed the nature and themes of his trilogy on his official website. He explains, “In the trilogy, we first made The Tashkent Files, which was about the right to truth. Then we made The Kashmir Files, which was about the right to justice. And this film (The Delhi Files) is about the right to life.”
The Initial Teaser: The Delhi Files
The initial trailer of The Delhi Files: The Bengal Chapter, released on YouTube on 26 January 2025, revealed nothing of substance about the film, which resulted in controversy. Such as the issue raised Maharashtra Sikh Association, claiming the film would commercialize the 1984 Sikh massacres. The teaser began with a rather rough and ragged man wearing tattered clothes. He walks slowly and seems to be disturbed. In the background, the Preamble of India is being recited.
This matches with Agnihotri’s comment that the third installment is about “The identity of India,” as the Preamble is the most basic representation of India’s identity.
At the end of the teaser, the man tiredly sits on the dirty footpath. Above him, a wall mural shows a girl clutching the flag of India, covered with red graffiti and spit stains we all recognize from our roadsides. This signifies that India is at the dawn of ruin and destruction, but hope for its betterment still remains.
In this teaser, the expected release date was announced as 15th August 2025.
The Second Teaser: The Bengal Files
Just yesterday, another teaser was released. It begins with a short monologue from a Kashmiri Pandit who says:
“I am a Kashmiri Pandit. That’s why I can say with certainty that Bengal is turning into another Kashmir. Why, even after 80 years of independence, are we still fighting the same communal politics? Are we truly free? And if we are, then why are we so helpless?”
This statement resolved much of the earlier ambiguity surrounding the film’s central themes. The audience now clearly understands that the film focuses on Bengal, and it explores themes such as communal violence and religious federalism.
As we are further introduced to characters such as Shiva Pandit, Jinnah, Amar, the Madman (introduced in the previous teaser), Patha, Gandhi, Maa Bharati, etc. Some based on real life and others fictional but all equally important for the impact of the film, the plot becomes clearer. The story revolves around the communal riots in Bengal in 1946 (Direct Action Day and Noakhali riots), which left scars on Bengal that still linger to this day.
In this teaser, the release date is moved to 5th September 2025.
Agnihotri’s View on Present-Day India
Agnihotri reveals how deeply shocked he was by the incidents at Pahalgam and Murshidabad. He repeatedly says, “Bengal is going to be the next Kashmir.”
Something he has already emphasized in the teaser.
He further reveals.
“I am a very sensitive man. I wore black for a long time, ever since the start of my trilogy. It was my way of mourning. I only stopped wearing black recently, about two months back, when my family and close ones got seriously irritated with my clothes.”
He also sheds light on the present state of India:
“There is no peace in Kashmir. It’s a strategic silence—al taqiya (smiling on the outside while planning destruction from within). Tourism doesn’t mean peace.”
The Change In the Title
The director Vivek Agnihotri took to his YouTube channel to reveal the change in the title of the film just a day before the second teaser release, explicitly revealing the themes of the film: “religious fundamentalism” and “religious violence.”
He says:
“The Delhi Files was an enormous project that I intended to release in parts, such as the Bengal chapter and others that I cannot reveal presently. But in such a broad prospect, the serious matter we have at hand would be diluted.”
He also said:
“People have reached out to me on various social media platforms to change the title. And I believe it is my moral duty and responsibility, after Murshidabad, to present this situation to you unapologetically, in black and white.”
He closed the video with a note on the upcoming film:
“If The Kashmir Files disturbed you, hurt you and made you shed tears, then Bengal will break you from the inside. And it is necessary that it breaks you from the inside. It’s important that I shatter you and your comfort zone. To show you kaise Bharat do kadam aage aur chaar kadam peeche jaata hai (how Bharat takes two steps forward and four steps back).”
He the emphasized on the collective ownership of the film:
“It’s not my film. A film needs 300 people to come to life. But it’s not theirs either. It’s yours—your story, our story, of our families and everyone.”
He concluded the video by firmly shutting down any further queries regarding the title change:
“Naam chahe jo ho, satya toh wahi hai (No matter what the name is, the truth remains the same).”
Stay tuned for more such articles only at The World Times!
