‘The Kashmir Files’ Director Vivek Agnihotri Faces Police Complaint Over ‘Bhopali Means Homosexual’ Remark

The complaint has been filed by 27-year-old PR manager named Rohit Pandey, who hails from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri | File Image: ANI/Twitter

New Delhi: A complaint was filed against filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri, the director of ‘The Kashmir Files’, at Mumbai’s Versova Police Station on Saturday over his remarks that “Bhopalis” are assumed to be “homosexual”.

The complaint has been filed by a 27-year-old PR manager named Rohit Pandey, who hails from Bhopal in Madhya Pradesh.

The complainant has sought the registration of an urgent FIR against the filmmaker under Sections 153A, 153B, 295A, 298, 500, and 505(2) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for “insulting” and “disrespecting his native place.

“My client states that he recently got acquainted with the said video and found it extremely shameful and embarrassing as he hails from Bhopal and that he completely vehemently denies and reject the said malicious slander committed by the accused not just against his native city being BHOPAL but has also defamed the whole state of Madhya Pradesh and India,” the complainant’s advocate Ali Kaashif Khan Deshmukh said in the complaint letter to the senior police inspector of Versova Police Station.

The complainant’s advocate also said “the accused has tarnished the reputation of the city, state and country” by “calling Bhopalis as homosexuals” and has even "ashamed the homosexual community" as he has “made fun of them”.

Earlier on Friday, former Madhya Pradesh chief minister and Congress leader Digvijaya Singh hit out at the filmmaker over his remarks.

The Congress leader said it must be Agnihotri’s personal experience but not of any common Bhopali.

“Vivek Agnihotri ji, this could be your personal experience, but not that of common Bhopal residents. I am associated with Bhopal and Bhopal residents since 1977, but I never had this experience. Wherever you stay, there's always an influence of the company you keep,” he tweeted in Hindi.

The retort by Digvijaya Singh came after a video of Agnihotri's remarks went viral just before the filmmaker's visit to Bhopal.

In the video, Agnihotri can heard saying that people often assume 'Bhopalis' to be homosexuals because of their "nawabi desires".

"I was brought up in Bhopal, but I am not Bhopali. The word Bhopali has a different connotation. I will tell you in private or you can ask some Bhopali. If you call someone a Bhopali it means the person is homosexual who has nawabi desires," Agnihotri says.