“India’s first enemy is its internal traitors” – says film maker Vivek Agnihotri
During the interview Agnihotri shared “One of India’s primary enemies has been people who have exploited Indian culture, traditions, caste, and creed. India has always had internal traitors, and that’s why it was easy for the Mughals to invade. The second enemy was Islam. They waged a war against Indian civilization. Culture is reflected in architecture, temples are not just religious places; they are our architectural heritage, and they were deliberately destroyed. Communism was the third enemy. These three forces together led to the creation of the Two-Nation Theory. Pakistan and China have been our traditional enemies. Bangladesh is our emerging enemy and the more we indulge in the India Pakistan conflict, the stronger Bangladesh becomes.”
“Highlighting cinema as a tool of soft power, Agnihotri shared how his film The Kashmir Files was an attempt to counter global misinformation and reclaim narratives. “Post the film, the term ‘Free Kashmir’ vanished from Indian and American university discourse,” he remarked, stating that storytelling can become a powerful instrument of truth and resistance.
“Swami Vivekananda spoke with conviction about Hindu philosophical and that’s what I want to do. Instead of showing somebody smaller talk about the greatness. Whatever is your skill think highly of it. The crisis in today’s world is a lack of trust, yet Indians are among the most trusted people globally. We must teach our true history of slavery, struggle, and resilience so people understand what was lost and what it means to belong. The soul of any society lies in its culture. Yet, instead of embracing meaningful modernism, we are blindly adapting Western practices”, he further shared.
