The Bengal Files

Story:

Vivek Agnihotri is the writer and director of the 2025 Hindi-language political drama propaganda film The Bengal Files. Portrays the violence and its aftermath as a genocide and centers the plot on the Direct Action Day and the Noakhali riots. Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi, Darshan Kumar, Anupam Kher, and Simrat Kaur are the film’s main actors.

After The Tashkent Files (2019) and The Kashmir Files (2022), Agnihotri’s The Files Trilogy, which is focused on contemporary Indian history, continues with The Bengal Files, the third and last volume. It was released on September 5, 2025, and has a duration of 204 minutes, making it one of the longest Indian films.  The movie was criticized for misrepresenting histor and did not succeed commercially.

The terrible events leading up to Direct Action Day on August 16, 1946, are depicted in the movie. Also referred to as the Great Calcutta Killings, the violence quickly extended to neighboring Bengal Presidency areas, notably the Tipperah and Comilla incidents and the Noakhali riots, which are shown in the film. The narrative, which is based on actual instances of intercommunal violence, emphasizes moments that profoundly influenced India’s journey towards freedom and division.

In addition to this historical context, the story centers on a criminal investigator who discovers a corrupt network while investigating a missing person case. Another character considers the sectarian violence that broke out before India was divided in parallel to his investigation.