After a few months, this film was not just a film for us anymore - The Kashmir Files writer Saurabh

The Kashmir Files has truly created history, but narrating heart wrenching incidents from history. Saurabh M. Pandey, the additional screenplay writer & researcher for the movie, spoke to India Forums about the movie, what went into getting things right, Bollywood's rather silence, and some more. The movie has minted over 200 crores at the box office and touched upon several lives. Featuring Anupam Kher, Darshan Kumar, Pallavi Joshi, among others, the movie has been talked about and continues to be the talk of B-town.

Here's our conversation with Saurabh about the movie.

First, did you fathom the kind of response the movie has been getting? Any first hand response that you think will stay with you?

None of us had expected this response, we somewhere knew the movie was going to be good, but this response was overwhelming. Everyone wants to make a good film, a commercially hit film, that people like the film, we also had the same thought, we wanted to reach more and more people through this film but the topic was such that after a few months, this film was not just a film for us anymore. It became a part of us, when you hear the pain that so many people have gone through, you tend to start living that feeling. I would like to credit Vivek sir, he was very clear on this since the start, that this is the truth, it hasn’t been shown to people since years.. its our focus to treat it as a project that needs to be heard and truth needs to reach the masses. People who have gone through all the atrocities, pain and sufferings, need to be reflected in our project. So if I talk about the commercial value, or the film being hit or flop are besides the focus points. Having said that, we are very grateful and happy about our film receiving such an amazing response.

First hand response that I received was from my mother, I am extremely close to my mother. She was absolutely numb for a while, when we first spoke after a few hours, she was shocked to know that these things actually happened in real life. I said yes, I have personally gone and spoken to so many of them.. my mother told me - Thank you that you made such a film. Even she was not aware that such things had happened. Coming from my mother, this was a very touching moment for me, at the same time it was very motivating for me to keep going ahead. The overall response is very motivating for me. 

Many things, right from blaming governor Jagmohan, to Advani and his rath yatra, or the RTI bogey, and Islamophobia have been used as arguments to use as a justification. Does that concern you?

Any sort of arguments cannot hide the truth, just like how Kashmiri Hindus, the genocide’s truth, all these were hidden from the public. But I am glad that now, the audience is watching it, reading up about it and finding out more about it. Audience’s have been shocked by the fact that how in one corner of the world, so many people were beaten and forced to leave their houses, how their daughters and wives were rapped on the streets. They have been on foot for days and days .. all of this is a truth and no one can argue this truth. And every thing shown in this film is a fact. We haven’t twisted the truth. We have presented it the way it was. The thing that concerns me is that I hope this doesn’t happen again. Nowhere in the world, in no society and I hope their own country don’t ignore them. And I hope the Kashmiri Hindus get their justice. 

Bollywood has been rather silent, and not everyone has come forward to speak just enough. What do you think?

Bollywood or out of Bollywood, everybody has a right to speak or not speak, I cannot comment on anything. I can just hope that if something like this has happened anywhere in the world, so people should read up about it, be aware about it. Apart from that. the views are very subjective, and I can’t blame or anyone and I hope more and more people talk about this to eliminate incidents like this. 

What went into writing the characters and shaping them the way they've shaped up, and of course, the immense response.

The film is inspired by true events. When we make a film we need to keep a lot of technicalities in our mind, having said that we tried keeping this raw and factual. Had we made it like a typical film we wouldn’t be able to do justice to the plot, it would have looked fictional. Vivek sir had a very clear vision and brief for this film. He didn’t want to treat this as a regular film, cinema is a very strong medium to reach the masses. All characters were designed and formed keeping the true incidents that we read in books and did interviews. We actually interviewed around 700 people for this, read a lot of books and watched a lot of documentaries. We gathered all the information and formed the characters. I am happy to know that people are liking the characters and are relating to the film. I feel the reason behind that is the truthfulness in everything that you watch in the film.

Other works from the writer include The Tashkent Files, Vani, Spotless, among others.