''The Bengal Files'', formerly known as ''The Delhi Files:'' ''The Bengal Chapter'', is an upcoming Indian

Hindi Modern Standard Hindi (, ), commonly referred to as Hindi, is the Standard language, standardised variety of the Hindustani language written in the Devanagari script. It is an official language of India, official language of the Government ...

-language film directed by

Vivek Agnihotri Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (born 10 November 1973) is an Indian director, producer, and writer who works in Hindi cinema. He is a member of the board of India's Central Board of Film Certification and a cultural representative of Indian Cinema at ...

. It is the third and final instalment in Agnihotri's "Files" trilogy based on modern Indian history, following ''

The Tashkent Files ''The Tashkent Files – Who Killed Shastri?'' is a 2019 Indian Hindi-language thriller film about the death of former Prime Minister of India Lal Bahadur Shastri; written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. The film stars Shweta Basu Prasad, ...

'' (2019) and ''

The Kashmir Files ''The Kashmir Files'' is a 2022 Indian Hindi-language drama film written and directed by Vivek Agnihotri. The film presents a fictional storyline centred around the 1990 exodus of Kashmiri Hindus from Indian-administered Kashmir. It depicts ...

'' (2022). The film is based on the 1946

Great Calcutta killings Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) was the day the All-India Muslim League decided to take a "direct action" using general strikes and economic shut down to demand a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as ...

. The film will be released in two parts, the first film titled ''The Bengal Files: Right to Life'' is scheduled to be released on 5 September 2025, which is Teachers' Day in India. The film explores the communal violence in undivided

Bengal Bengal ( ) is a Historical geography, historical geographical, ethnolinguistic and cultural term referring to a region in the Eastern South Asia, eastern part of the Indian subcontinent at the apex of the Bay of Bengal. The region of Benga ...

during the 1940s, including events like

Direct Action Day Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) was the day the All-India Muslim League decided to take a "direct action" using general strikes and economic shut down to demand a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as ...

and the

Noakhali riots The Noakhali riots were a series of semi-organized massacres, rapes and abductions of Hindus, combined with looting and arson of Hindu properties, perpetrated by Muslim mobs in the districts of Noakhali in the Chittagong Division of the eas ...

, which Agnihotri characterises as a Hindu genocide. He titled the film ''The Delhi Files'' to emphasise his belief that "the destiny of India is written in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, but spread chiefly to the west, or beyond its Bank (geography ...

and not in

Plot

This film portrays the tragic events surrounding

in August 1946, also known as the

Great Calcutta Killings Direct Action Day (16 August 1946) was the day the All-India Muslim League decided to take a "direct action" using general strikes and economic shut down to demand a separate Muslim homeland after the British exit from India. Also known as ...

, through a cinematic narrative. The storyline is based on real incidents of communal violence that erupted in Bengal, significantly shaping India's path to independence and partition.

Cast

Mithun Chakraborty Mithun Chakraborty (born Gouranga Chakraborty; 16 June 1950) is an Indian actor, film producer, screenwriter, entrepreneur and politician who predominantly works in Hindi cinema, Hindi and Cinema of West Bengal, Bengali cinema. In a career spa ...

as Madman Chatur *

Darshan Kumar Darshan Kumar Gandas is an Indian actor who appears primarily in Hindi films. He made his debut with the film ''Tere Naam'' in which he played one of Salman Khan's friends and starred in ''Mary Kom'' (2014), opposite Priyanka Chopra, as a mal ...

as Shiva Pandit * Sourav Das as Gopal Patha (Gopal Chandra Mukhopadhyay/Mukherjee), a Butcher from Calcutta * Eklavya Sood as Amar *

Anupam Kher Anupam Kher (born 7 March 1955) is an Indian actor, director and producer who works primarily in Hindi cinema. In a career spanning over four decades, he has acted in more than 540 films. A veteran of Indian cinema, Kher is recipient of two Na ...

Mahatma Gandhi Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (2October 186930January 1948) was an Indian lawyer, anti-colonial nationalism, anti-colonial nationalist, and political ethics, political ethicist who employed nonviolent resistance to lead the successful Indian ...

Puneet Issar Puneet Issar (born 6 November 1959) is an Indian actor, writer, director, producer and dialect coach best known for his works in Hindi, Bengali, Telugu, Kannada, Malayalam films and television shows. Issar started his acting career as a villa ...

as Rajnath *

Saswata Chatterjee Saswata Chatterjee (born 19 December 1970) is an Indian actor known for his work in Bengali cinema and television, with appearances in Hindi films. The son of actor Subhendu Chatterjee, he began his career with a Hindi television series direc ...

as Sardar *

Dibyendu Bhattacharya Dibyendu Bhattacharya (born 11 November 1975) is an Indian actor who works in Hindi cinema and Bengali cinema And Web Series. He is best known for his role in '' Dev D.'' ,Layak Talukdar in ''Criminal Justice'', 2019 Hotstar Web series and DyS ...

as Zamindar Rajendra Lal Roy Choudhury *

Govind Namdev Govind Namdev (born 3 September 1954) is an Indian actor who appears in Hindi films. Namdev made his debut as a corrupt cop in David Dhawan's '' Shola Aur Shabnam'' (1992). He has acted in numerous movies, often as a villain. He is an alumnus o ...

Babbu Maan Tejinder Singh "Babbu" Maan (born 29 March 1975) is an Indian singer-songwriter, music director, actor and film producer. Most of his artistic work focuses on Punjabi music and films. He is recognised as being among the biggest artists in Punj ...

Pallavi Joshi Pallavi Joshi (born 4 April 1969) is an Indian actress, writer, and film producer who works primarily in Hindi films and television. In a career spanning across films and television, Joshi is the recipient of such accolades as three National Fi ...

as Maa Bharati * Palomi Ghosh *

Priyanshu Chatterjee Priyanshu Chatterjee (born 20 February 1973) is an Indian Bengali actor and former model known for his works in Hindi and Bengali cinema. He made his Hindi film debut in '' Tum Bin'' in 2001. His other recognized works include '' Aapko Pehle Bh ...

as Banerjee, a judge at Dharamtalla Magistrate Court *

Mohan Kapur Mohan Kapur is an Indian actor and television host who works predominantly in Hindi films and television. Career Kapur is known as the host of the first Indian original program produced by a satellite network (Zee TV), ''Saanp Seedi'' (Snakes ...

Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy (8 September 18925 December 1963) was an East Pakistani barrister, politician and statesman who served as the Prime Minister of Pakistan from 1956 to 1957 and before that as the Prime Minister of Bengal from 1946 to ...

* Vatsal Seth as

Muhammad Ali Jinnah Muhammad Ali Jinnah (born Mahomedali Jinnahbhai; 25 December 187611 September 1948) was a barrister, politician, and the founder of Pakistan. Jinnah served as the leader of the All-India Muslim League from 1913 until the inception of Pa ...

Gopal Datt Gopal Datt is an Indian actor and writer. Gopal Datt started as theater artist in 1999 until he got first starring role in Mujhe Kucch Kehna Hai. He also went on to star in the blockbuster Tere Naam, Samrat & Co. and the National Award-winnin ...

as Ghulam * Namashi Chakraborty * Anubha Arora *

Satwant Kaur Satwant Kaur is an Indian film and television actress who works in Punjabi and Hindi films. She started her career through Punjabi music videos, television soap operas and telefilms in the earlier days and ended up appearing in the films. She i ...

* Richard Keep * Shubhankar Das *

Divya Palat Divya Palat (born in Calcutta, India) is a Producer and Director for theatre plays like ''A Personal War- Stories of the Mumbai Terror Attacks'' and was a Hindi actress who has done films, such as '' Masti'' with Vivek Oberoi, '' Dhund'' with ...

* Ankit Bisht * Saurav Raj Vermaa * Olga Yumasheva

Production

Agnihotri Agnihotri is an Indian Hindu Brahmin surname derived from the Sanskrit word ''Agnihotra''. The term ''Agnihotri'' originally referred to the Hindu Brahmins who maintained the sacred fire during the fire rituals. People with this surname include: ...

announced the project in April 2022 following the success of ''

''. Principal photography began in 2023. Agnihotri confirmed the filming of the film wrapped by January 2025.The cinematography of the film is handled by

Attar Singh Saini Attar Singh Saini is an Indian cinematographer who works in Hindi films Hindi cinema, popularly known as Bollywood and formerly as Bombay cinema, is primarily produced in Mumbai. The popular term Bollywood is a portmanteau of "Bombay" ( ...

Release

''The Bengal Files'' is scheduled for a theatrical release on 5 September 2025.

Historical background

According to director

, the film focuses on the communal violence in

during the 1940s, particularly the

riots and their aftermath. Though the film is set primarily in Bengal, Agnihotri initially chose the title ''The Delhi Files'' because, in his words, "the destiny of India is written in Delhi and not Bengal." He stated that the events in Bengal were shaped by decisions taken in Delhi during the 1940s. The events portrayed in the film are based on historical incidents such as

, also known as the

, which took place in August 1946. The violence, which originated in

Calcutta Kolkata, also known as Calcutta (List of renamed places in India#West Bengal, its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian States and union territories of India, state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern ba ...

following the Muslim League's declaration of Direct Action Day on 16 August, escalated into mass rioting, primarily affecting the Hindu population. Estimates of the death toll ranged from 5,000 to 10,000, with thousands more injured. The violence soon spread to surrounding regions, including

Noakhali Noakhali District (), historically known as Bhulua (), is a Districts of Bangladesh, district in southeastern Bangladesh, located in Chattogram Division. It was established as a district in 1821, and officially named Noakhali in 1868. The distr ...

Bihar Bihar ( ) is a states and union territories of India, state in Eastern India. It is the list of states and union territories of India by population, second largest state by population, the List of states and union territories of India by are ...

, and

Punjab Punjab (; ; also romanised as Panjāb or Panj-Āb) is a geopolitical, cultural, and historical region in South Asia. It is located in the northwestern part of the Indian subcontinent, comprising areas of modern-day eastern Pakistan and no ...

, intensifying communal tensions across India.

Controversies

In April 2022, the Maharashtra Sikh Association issued objections, claiming the film would commercialise the 1984 Sikh massacres but the director on that time has not confirmed the plot details. Although some speculated that the film is based on 1984 Sikh massacres, later it was found to be based on

also known as

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Bengal Files, The Indian thriller films 2020s Hindi-language films 2025 thriller films 2025 films Cultural depictions of prime ministers of India Cultural depictions of Lal Bahadur Shastri Cultural depictions of Indian people Films directed by Vivek Agnihotri Hindi-language thriller films Films about conspiracy theories Conspiracy theories in India Films adapted for other media Indian film series