In a momentous turn of events, filmmaker Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri’s The Kashmir Files, won the National Award for Best Feature Film on National Integration. Elated about the news, the director, who is in the US, tells us, “It was very early in the morning [here] and my phone kept buzzing — that’s how I got to know! I’m very happy, especially for the Kashmiri Hindu community, because the film was their voice of pain and struggle. I was just the medium. We made our film honestly and presented it in front of the world. I’m happy that it has got validation now.”

The 49-year-old anticipates a potential surge in negative attention — similar to what he faced, from some factions, during its release — despite the honour. “Do you think that the trolls won’t hate or attack me anymore? The backlash [might] increase after the National award, because we stand vindicated,” says the filmmaker, who’s gearing up for the release of his next, The Vaccine War.

Brushing off detractors as naysayers, Agnihotri states, “Some 8-10 voices mean nothing to me. There were more people who loved the film and some trolls with a different political inclination.”

The filmmaker whose wife, actor Pallavi Joshi also bagged a National Award for The Kashmir Files in the Best Supporting Actress category, believes that this accolade will serve as an inspiration to other filmmakers to delve into real subjects and produce meaningful cinematic narratives. “Getting the most prestigious recognition will definitely encourage many other filmmakers to make films on such real subjects,” he wraps up.