Roswell, GA, August 1, 2025: On Saturday, July 26, an exclusive pre-release screening of The Bengal Files was hosted at Area 51 – Aurora Cineplex in Roswell, Georgia, drawing a full-capacity audience for the event. Organized by the Coalition of Hindus of North America (CoHNA), the Global Kashmiri Pandit Diaspora (GKPD), and the I Am Buddha Foundation, the program featured a live Q&A session with director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and producer-actor Pallavi Joshi following the film.
The Bengal Files is the third and final installment in Agnihotri’s “Files Trilogy,” which examines lesser-known or contentious chapters of Indian history. The trilogy began with The Tashkent Files (2019), exploring the circumstances surrounding the death of Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri, and continued with The Kashmir Files (2022), which focused on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s. The latest film portrays the tragic events surrounding Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946—also known as the 1946 Great Calcutta Killings. Through a cinematic narrative, it explores how the violence, initially concentrated in Calcutta, spread to surrounding regions of the Bengal Presidency, including the Noakhali riots and the Tipperah (Comilla) region.
Direct Action Day was declared by the All-India Muslim League as a political demonstration to demand a separate Muslim homeland following the British exit from India. Initially envisioned as a general strike and economic shutdown, the day escalated into large-scale communal violence between Hindus and Muslims in Calcutta. The clashes, which began on August 16, led to a week of intense bloodshed, often referred to as the “Week of the Long Knives.” While there is some consensus on the scale of the violence and its immediate effects, debates continue regarding the causes, sequence of events, and long-term political impact.
During the post-screening discussion, Vivek Agnihotri explained the motivations behind making the film. He noted that the project was developed to examine historical episodes that, in his view, have not received adequate attention in mainstream discourse. “We were never told about these events,” he said. “Every dialogue, every word, every shot, even the visuals you will see—I have not done anything. I’ve just translated them and replicated them.” He emphasized that the film is grounded in extensive documentation and research conducted over several years.
Agnihotri also spoke about the challenges associated with the film’s subject matter, including legal complications and political reactions. “There are some 5,000 FIRs filed against The Bengal Files,” he noted, adding that legal paperwork was ongoing at the time of the screening. He referenced public remarks made by the Chief Minister of West Bengal expressing opposition to the film and stated that, despite such criticism, the filmmakers intend to release it in India without alteration. “Nobody on this earth can stop it,” he said…