Vivek Agnihotri had to borrow money for flight tickets during Bengal Files promotions: ‘We are struggling financially’

Vivek Agnihotri claimed that ever since he has started to voice 'uncomfortable truths' through his films, he has been struggling financially.

Vivek Agnihotri says he has invested all his earning and more in making The Bengal Files. (Photo: Express Archive)

After delivering a breakout hit with The Kashmir Files, filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri recently released the third installment of his trilogy: The Bengal Files. To produce the film, the filmmaker allegedly invested everything he earned from its predecessor, and then some more. In a recent interview with Galatta Plus, Vivek shared that he is strapped for cash, and had to borrow money to travel to Delhi for the film’s promotions.

The filmmaker shared: “My biggest challenge is money. Nobody backs our film until the last minute. Whatever money we earned in Kashmir Files, we have put in making The Bengal Files. I don’t know what will happen to me after this [financially]. The problem is that our ambition is to create something which is [worth] Rs 100 crore but we have very small money so we have to look after every penny and do things faster so that we finish shoot in lesser days.”

Vivek says he is struggling financially

While Vivek marked his directorial debut with the 2005 film Chocolate, followed by Goal (2007), Hate Story (2012) and Zid (2014). He had a creative awakening with the 2016 film Buddha in a Traffic Jam, after which he directed The Tashkent Files. He added, “Ever since I started to tell uncomfortable truths through my films, I have been struggling. I struggled with Buddha in a Traffic Jam, Tashkent Files and The Kashmir Files. We are still struggling with money. We were just discussing about how to borrow money to fly to Delhi and market the film there.”

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Vivek also confessed that his next move completely depends on the box office collections of The Bengal Files. He shared: “I have two options. I can either make second part of the film depending on what this film does for us. Even if it will help us get a little money… I will make its second part.” Explaining the maths, the filmmaker said: “We made The Kashmir Files on a budget of Rs 15 crore. We earned Rs 30 crore from that film. We invested it in The Bengal Files. We also borrowed some money to make this film which is yet to be paid.”

ALSO READ | The Bengal Files movie review: Vivek Agnihotri’s film comes unstuck in its loose, confused stretched-out execution

The Bengal Files opening day box office collection

The Bengal Files opened at Rs 1.75 crore on September 5 with around 1102 shows across India. On its day 2, the film, which is seemingly made on a budget of at least Rs 50 crore, has just earned Rs 1 crore till 5 pm.

On its release day, the film witnessed an overall occupancy of 21.24%. Starring Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Saswata Chatterjee, Mithun Chakraborty and Anupam Kher, The Bengal Files was released against Tiger Shroff’s Baagi 4 and the Hollywood horror drama The Conjuring: Last Rites. While Baaghi opened at Rs 12 crore, the English horror drama opened at Rs 17.5 crore with its Hindi version collecting Rs 6.35 crore.

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Vivek Agnihotri’s film revolves around the 1946 Great Calcutta Killings and the Noakhali riots.

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