Israeli filmmaker comments on Kashmir film stoke controversy

By SHEIKH SAALIQ
Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — Israel’s envoy to India has denounced a filmmaker from his country after he called a blockbuster Bollywood film on disputed Kashmir a “propaganda” and “vulgar movie” at a film festival. Ambassador Naor Gilon said he was “extremely hurt” by comments made by filmmaker Nadav Lapid in which he said the movie “The Kashmir Files” was unworthy of being included in the International Film Festival of India. The film is set in the late 1980s and the early 1990s when attacks and threats by militants led to the migration of most Kashmiri Hindus from the Muslim-majority Kashmir. Many critics have called the film divisive but its proponents, including Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s party, see it as essential viewing of the plight of Kashmiri Hindus.