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Vivek Agnihotri

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Vivek Agnihotri
Man, in white shirt, sitting
Agnihotri, c. 2018
Born
Gwalior, MP, India
NationalityIndian
EducationOrganization & Management
Occupation(s)Director, script writer, producer and activist
SpousePallavi Joshi
Children2
Websitehttps://iambuddha.net/

Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri is an Indian film director, screenwriter and an author.[1] A right wing activist,[2][3] he is a current member on the panel of Central Board of Film Certification.[4]

His films have been mostly subject to poor reviews from critics and have fared poorly at box-office[3] with the exception of The Tashkent Files, which was a sleeper hit.

Early life and education

He was born in Gwalior[5], Madhya Pradesh, Agnihotri studied at the Indian Institute of Mass Communication[6] and at the Bhopal school of social sciences.[7][8]

Career

Filmography

Vivek debuted with Chocolate, which was a remake of a 1995 Hollywood neo-noir crime thriller The Usual Suspects. Critical reception was grossly negative[9]; the film fared poorly at box office.[10][11]

Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal was about an all-Asian football team in the United Kingdom winning trophies while fighting against on-field discrimination and local municipality, which intends to sell off its ground.[12][13] It was subject to poor reception from critics[14] and was a flop.[15][16] Hate Story received mixed critical reception[17] and the film fared moderately at box office.[18]

Buddha in a Traffic Jam was received unfavorably by critics[19] and was a flop.[20][21] Junooniyat was subject to poor reviews as well[22] and fared similarly at box office.[23] Zid incurred grossly poor reviews[24] and was a flop.[25]

The Tashkent Files was subject to mostly unfavorable reviews from critics and was widely deemed to be politically motivated in light of the concurrent 2019 general elections but was a sleeper box-office hit.[26]

Author

Vivek made his debut in 2018 with Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam.[27][28][29]

A review in Organiser, an affiliated publication of the Hindu nationalist organisation Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS), praised the work.[30]

The then Union Minister of Human Resource Development, Smriti Irani had launched the book and endorsed Vivek's views of Jadavpur University and Jawaharlal Nehru University being breeding grounds of anti-national elements, for having refused to screen his film Buddha in a Traffic Jam.[31] In Jadavpur University, Left students organisation had attacked his car, braking the window glasses in protest of the screening of the film.[32][33]

Fim certification

During his tenure as the chair of CBFC, in an interview before OpIndia, he deemed No Fathers in Kashmir to contain substantial amounts of Jihadi and anti-national propaganda, which was allegedly flagged by other members of the committee but were ultimately over-ruled by him, on grounds of freedom of expression.[34] The film went on to garner highly positive reviews from critics.

Personal life

Vivek is married to Pallavi Joshi, an Indian film and television actress.[3]

Controversies

Twitter

Vivek has been criticised for sharing fake content on Twitter.[35][36][37] In September 2018, Twitter had locked his account for a short span of time, until he agreed to delete a tweet abusing Swara Bhaskar. In response to Swara calling out an elected legislator, who remarked of an alleged rape-victim to be a prostitute, Vivek tweeted Where is the placard - '#MeTooProstituteNun'? The tweet was widely interpreted as alluding Swara to be a prostitute; he defended his tweet though, claiming to only make a point about the placarding by liberals at selective instances of alleged perpetrators belonging from the Hindu community.[38]

In January 2018, he was called out for engaging in casteist commentary, after he alleged of reverse-discrimination at a Dalit leader's grandson flying in economy class in contrast to his' flying in economy class, despite being a brahmin.[39]

Allegation of Sexual Harrassment

Bollywood actress Tanushree Dutta had accused Vivek of inappropriate behaviour during the filming of Chocolate. He allegedly asked her to strip and dance in order to give expression-cues to her male co-actor Irrfan during one of his close-up shot and retreated only after Irrfan and Suniel Shetty rebuffed him. Vivek had refuted the allegations as absolutely false and vexatious and filed a defamation case against her.[40][41]

Urban Naxals

Agnihotri defined ‘Urban Naxal’ as "an intellectual, influencer or activist who is an invisible enemy of India".[3] Critics argue that the term "Urban Naxals" was coined by him to discredit any intellectual who was critical of the establishments or political right.[42][43]

References

  1. ^ "No director wants to work with stars: Hate Story director". NDTV News channel. Retrieved 17 August 2012.
  2. ^ "Who We Are - #IAmBuddha Foundation". #IAmBuddha. Retrieved 24 September 2018.
  3. ^ a b c d "He's making a list of 'Urban Naxals', but who is Vivek Agnihotri?". ThePrint. 29 August 2018. Retrieved 26 March 2019.
  4. ^ "List of Board Members - CBFC".
  5. ^ "Vivek Agnihotri - Movies, Biography, News, Age & Photos". BookMyShow. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  6. ^ ""Terrorism interests and fascinates me":Vivek Agnihotri". Indian Television Dot Com. 2 January 2002. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  7. ^ Nationalist Ravi (16 June 2016). "Risk it with Ravijot - Talk 01, Vivek Agnihotri" – via YouTube.
  8. ^ Modi, Chintan Girish (8 April 2016). "The contrarian Kanhaiya Kumar". The Hindu. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 29 October 2019.
  9. ^ "Jaspreet Pandohar review of Chocolate (Deep Dark Secrets) (2005)". BBC. Retrieved 4 March 2012.
  10. ^ "Chocolate - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  11. ^ Instep (21 September 2014). "When Bollywood goes Lollywood for inspiration!". TNS - The News on Sunday. Retrieved 27 October 2019.
  12. ^ Glynn, Stephen (3 May 2018). The British Football Film. Springer. p. 137. ISBN 9783319777276.
  13. ^ Krämer, Lucia (2 June 2016). Bollywood in Britain: Cinema, Brand, Discursive Complex. Bloomsbury Publishing USA. pp. 74–78. ISBN 9781501307584.
  14. ^ Reviews of Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal:
  15. ^ "Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  16. ^ Business Today. Vol. 17. Living Media India Limited. 2008. p. 60.
  17. ^ Reviews of Hate Story:
  18. ^ "Hate Story - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  19. ^ Reviews of Buddha in a Traffic Jam:
  20. ^ "Arunoday Singh: I don't consider myself any less successful right now". Hindustan Times. 26 April 2018. Retrieved 15 March 2019.
  21. ^ "Buddha In A Traffic Jam - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  22. ^ Reviews of Junooniyat:
  23. ^ "Junooniyat - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  24. ^ Reviews of Zid:
  25. ^ "Zid - Movie - Box Office India". boxofficeindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  26. ^ "Bhakt Vivek Agnihotri's stars". www.telegraphindia.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  27. ^ IANS (15 June 2018). "Not easy to attract eyeballs from government: Vivek Agnihotri". Business Standard India. Retrieved 20 June 2018.
  28. ^ "Vivek Agnihotri's Urban Naxals: The Making of Buddha in a Traffic Jam | Going beyond the Maoist myth". The New Indian Express. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  29. ^ "Urban Naxals - The Making of Buddha In A Traffic Jam". Indic Today. 30 May 2018. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  30. ^ "Book Review: The Untold Story of Communist Terrorism". www.organiser.org. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  31. ^ Singh, Vivashwan (5 June 2015). "'Ghoul' and the Spectre of Totalitarianism". Economic and Political Weekly. 53 (42): 7–8.
  32. ^ "Pro-Left student wings protested against screening of 'Buddha In A Traffic Jam' in Jadavpur University". The Economic Times. 6 May 2016. Retrieved 30 October 2019.
  33. ^ "Those Who Attacked Me at Jadavpur Were Naxals and Leftist: Vivek Agnihotri". News18. Retrieved 31 October 2019.
  34. ^ Sharma, Nupur J. (25 January 2019). "'The movie is not stuck, the makers are': CBFC member Vivek Agnihotri explains how The Wire twisted facts around 'No fathers in Kashmir' - Opindia News". OpIndia. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  35. ^ Rampal, Nikhil (25 December 2018). "2018's top 10 fake news: From 'Pak zindabad' to post claiming Congress most 'corrupt party'". The Print. Retrieved 12 March 2019. {{cite web}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |dead-url= (help)
  36. ^ Sidharth, Arjun (11 March 2019). "Vivek Agnihotri makes false claim of Nehru responsible for outcome of 1965 Indo-Pak war". Alt News. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  37. ^ Team, BOOM FACT Check (12 November 2018). "Vivek Agnihotri Tweets Misleading Video Of Kanhaiya Kumar Speaking About Islam | BOOM". boomlive.in. Retrieved 12 March 2019.
  38. ^ Sources covering the episode:
  39. ^ Sources covering the episode:
  40. ^ Sources covering the episode:
  41. ^ Starkey, Jesse C.; Koerber, Amy; Sternadori, Miglena; Pitchford, Bethany (1 October 2019). "#MeToo Goes Global: Media Framing of Silence Breakers in Four National Settings". Journal of Communication Inquiry. 43 (4): 437–461. doi:10.1177/0196859919865254. ISSN 0196-8599.
  42. ^ Coverage and commentary on the term in mainstream media:
  43. ^ Coverage and commentary on the term in scholarly sources:
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