The Kashmir Files is tax-free in K'taka, Bengaluru gives it a thumbs up

On Sunday, Karnataka Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai followed Haryana, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh governments' in making the movie 'The Kashmir Files" tax-free in the state.

The Vivek Agnihotri-directed film is based on the mass killings and exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir valley by Islamic extremists after 1989.

The Vijayapura BJP MLA Basanagouda Patil Yatnal has announced that he will fund one show per day of the movie 'The Kashmir Files' for a week so that people can watch it free of cost. 

"The Kashmir Files shows the blood curdling atrocities committed on the Kashmiri Pandits and Hindus. It has to be shown to our people so as to spread awareness that in the coming years no such incident should take place with us," Yatnal told reporters here.

Even the Chief Minister congratulated the director for making the film and encouraged people to watch it. “Kudos to@vivekagnihotri for #TheKashmirFiles, a blood-curdling, poignant & honest narrative of the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from their home land. To lend our support to the movie & encourage our people to watch it, we will make the movie tax-free in Karnataka,” he tweeted.

While the state used to levy an entertainment tax before it was replaced by the Goods and Services Tax on July 1, 2017, a 28 percent GST is now levied on cinema screenings. Bommai and his party and cabinet colleagues went to see the movie on Sunday night in Bengaluru.

Theatres were flooded on the first day of the movie's release in the city, which is home to about 400 families of Kashmiri Pandits according to a 2019 news article. 

The Kashmir Files earned back its budget of about Rs. 12.05 crore in two days after its release in the country, netting a total Rs. 15.10 crore on Day 3.

The Anupam Kher and Mithun Chakraborty-starrer showed violence inflicted on women and children, mass displacement, brutality, mass murder, conflicting ideologies and the search for truth in a massive tear-jerker.

Watch: The Kashmir files: 'Jai Shri Ram' slogans in Bengaluru after film screening

While the response has been largely positive so far, netizens claimed that some forces are working to diminish the success of the 3-hour long film by buying tickets and leaving seats empty at theatres.

Some theatres were also found leaving out The Kashmir Files poster, while one theatre in Bhiwandi, Maharashtra cut down the audio of the movie, making the audience furious.