The Tashkent Files — After Uri: The Surgical Strike, Vivek Agnihotri's film completes 100 days in theatres

Vivek Agnihotri's directorial The Tashkent Files has completed its 100-day-run in theatres. The only other film of 2019 to cross this milestone is the patriotic drama Uri: The Surgical Strike, starring Vicky Kaushal and Yami Gautam. Trade analysts observed that The Tashkent Files has managed to stay in theatres despite releases of big budget films, the ICC Cricket World Cup and negative reviews.

A poster of The Tashkent Files. Image from Twitter

Zee Studios shared the development on Twitter.

The Tashkent Files brings forth the unsolved mystery of Lal Bahadur Shastri’s death. While official reports claim that the former prime minister died of a heart attack, several conspiracy theories suggest that Shastri was poisoned. The theories are bolstered by the fact that his personal physician, who said that Shastri had no sign of heart trouble before, was killed in a road accident shortly after Shastri's death. Agnihotri had announced in January that he would make a film on the "truth of the biggest cover-up of free India" on Twitter.

Pankaj Tripathi is Gangaram Jha, a scientist, Mithun Chakraborty plays Shyam Sundar Tripathi, a politician, Shweta Basu Prasad portrays Raagini Phule, a journalist and Pallavi Joshi is Aiysha Ali Shah, an author and historian. Naseeruddin Shah, Vinay Pathak, Mandira Bedi, Pallavi Joshi, Ankur Rathee and Prakash Belawadi are also part of the cast.

Ahead of its release on 12 April, The Tashkent Files landed in legal trouble after the director and producers were served a notice by the grandsons of Shastri, seeking a stay on the film's release. Shastri's family questioned the timing of the film's release, clashing with the first phase of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections beginning on 11 April. They also alleged that the makers did not seek permission from the immediate family members of Shastri.

In response, Agnihotri released a statement stating that the move to stall the release of the film is politically motivated.