Director Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri released The Bengal Files trailer on Saturday, August 16. However, he hit a roadblock in Kolkata while releasing the trailer. He alleged that the special screening of the trailer at a theatre in Kolkata was halted after the venue was cancelled. Later, when he tried launching it in a banquet hall, the screening was stopped by the police.

Vivek Agnihotri calls out dictatorship

Talking to IANS exclusively, Vivek Agnihotri said that he was informed by the organisers that they had to cancel the screening owing to the political pressure in the state. He told IANS, "Organisers told me that they can`t show it because of political pressure. Then we talked to another multiplex chain. They also told us that there is a lot of political pressure, and we will get stuck in a lot of trouble. And that`s why we can`t show it either. So when we didn`t have any option left, where would we go? What would we do? What could be more saddening for a filmmaker than not being able to show his film in a theatre? The thing for which it was made. If someone writes a book and it is not shown in a bookshop, then we don`t have any option".

Vivek further mentioned, "But my name is Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri and I am not one of the losers. So I said, `No problem, we will do it in a banquet hall. This is my first time to launch the trailer of a film in a banquet hall like this. Our entire team had come here, after that, it got cancelled. I don`t know what they are afraid of. Why do they want to stop this film? Why do they want to suppress my voice? And a film which has got a CBFC certificate, which has been shown in 12 cities in America, that film is about Bengal".