Exclusive! Vidhu Vinod Chopra REACTS to #BoycottShikara, calls it ‘dumb’

Filmmaker Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s film ‘Shikara: The Untold Story of Kashmiri’ was released recently and since then it has been hitting the headlines. Soon after the release, the film faced a lot of controversies.
Audiences lashed out on him for ‘undermining’ and ‘commercializing’ genocide. People even started trending #Boycott_Shikara and also went on to call it ‘shameful’ and ‘disgraceful’.He also wrote an open letter where he dismissed the allegation as 'nonsensical'. His response comes days after a Kashmiri Pandit woman broke down after watching the film and accused the director of "commercialising the plight" of the community that was forced to leave the Valley in the 1990s when militancy rose its head in the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
Calling himself an 'affected Kashmiri Hindu', Chopra recalled how his house in Kashmir was ransacked and his family members attacked. Chopra said he made 'Shikara' as he was a first-hand witness to what the loss of a home means
Today in an exclusive chat with ETimes, the renowned filmmaker reacted on the entire controversy. He said, “See, for me, for me, it’s important... I was in Calcutta, when I wrote it, I wrote it as I had time since my flight was in the evening. My interviews were done. There was time. Why don't I write this? I mean, if I was busy, maybe I would never. But the reason I wrote, I was happy that I wrote it. It is the last line to be when I wrote it also moved me saying to the young people like you, ‘I don't want your future to be like my past’. That is most critical. Because you know, if you guys go the part of hate and the path of destruction and the vinaash, as I'm saying, instead of Vishwas and vikas, it will make you unhappy to make our country… I mean, it's not the way to go.”
He further also said that he addressed that letter to the youth of this country. “I addressed that letter, particularly to young people. I did not want to talk to the older people because they will not listen to me. I'm going to colleges tomorrow, I'm hoping that people under 30, under 25 and 27, whatever young people who are 50 or 60% of our population, just go and see this film and listen to one simple message, don’t make your future guys my past. Look at what this can lead. Look at what they're doing to the movie with this hate, how dumb it is.” Check out the entire video below:

Featuring Aadil Khan and Sadia, the film released last Friday.