Fact Check: The Kashmir Files did not receive the national film award. Know the truth

On the 22^nd of July, the winners of the 68th National Film Awards were announced in New Delhi. In what came as a satisfactory decision by the IB Ministry on Friday, Ajay Devgn bagged the National Award for Best Actor at the 68th National Film Awards for 2020. He has been awarded for his titular role in ‘Tanhaji: The Unsung Warrior’. Along with Ajay Devgn, Suriya too won the award for his work in Soorarai Pottru.

Ever since the awards have been announced, liberals had turned ostrich as they have been criticising Tanhaji for portraying nationalism on the big screen. Now, few media portals have stepped in with a ‘revolutionary’ idea to counter the decision. They have started doing a hit job on ‘The Kashmir Files’ movie, claiming that it did not receive the national award.

Media portals’ hit job on ‘The Kashmir Files’

Yesterday, Vivek Agnihotri took to twitter to inform about how media portals are running vicious campaigns against The Kashmir Files. He tweeted, “A lot of reputed media houses are running a vicious ‘Hit Job’ against #TheKashmirFiles. And no one is fact-checking them. If they do this to ‘terrorist friendly’ Bollywood films, ecosystem would instantly call it Islamophobia. I leave it here for your conscience to decide.”

He also shared two screenshots. The first screenshot was of the Facebook page of ABP News, where the media organisation claimed that the ‘The Kashmir Files’ failed to bag any awards at the 68th National Awards. It falsely claimed that the National Awards were given for the movie produced this year.

Another screenshot displayed Aaj Tak’s sister channel ‘News Tak’ that seemed to have followed the footsteps of Aaj Tak to peddle its propaganda.

Here’s the fact check

Little efforts to go through the details of the awards and Aaj Tak could have prevented this horrible mistake. But, how do the facts matter when all that is needed is propaganda, right? A ‘cute’ Aaj Tak seems to have no information about the national awards, but no worries, we have.

It must be mentioned that on the 22^nd of July, the Government of India’s Directorate of Film Festivals awarded the movies released in 2020. A 10-member jury led by filmmaker Vipul Shah submitted the report of the 68th National Film Awards. Since the awards were given to the films released in 2020, how is ‘The Kashmir Files’, which was released this year, supposed to get featured in any of the categories? Why is it so difficult for Aaj Tak to go through the details of any news before making it public?

Liberals hate both ‘Tanhaji’ and ‘The Kashmir Files’

If you have seen the film Tanhaji, then you must be aware of how nationalism and Hindu pride was portrayed beautifully in the movie. This is the reason why many media portals criticised Tanhaji after it was released. From NDTV to The New Indian Express, every self-declared ‘secular’ portal came together to discredit the movie. Despite their multiple efforts to demean nationalism and label the film as Hindutva propaganda, Tanhaji won national awards for best actor and best popular film.

Read more: National Film Awards 2022: Ajay Devgn stands vindicated

Since it was a shame for the liberals, they went back to their dens and stayed mum for a few days. Then, ‘The Kashmir Files’ entered the picture. Since the movie released this year is a super-hit and talked about the genocide of Hindus in Kashmir in the 1990s, liberals came out spewing venom against the movie. They wanted to use this opportunity to malign both Tanhaji and The Kashmir Files. But, due to the lack of fact-checking by media portals, the move has gloriously backfired.

It is time for Aaj Tak to take lessons from this blunder or it will keep humiliating itself regularly.