Students clash in Jadavpur University campus after film screening

KOLKATA: Students clashed in Jadavpur University after Bollywood director Vivek Agnihotri screened his political drama 'Buddha in a Traffic Jam' open-air inside the campus.

After the film screening ended late in the evening, students from ABVP and other Left-backed unions engaged in a fight in which few of them received minor injuries, officials said.

Agnihotri was welcomed at the campus gates with black flags, sloganeering and placards asking him to leave.

The filmmaker claimed he was manhandled and gheraoed by some students and even the glass pane of his car was left shattered in the commotion.

The state-run varsity's alumni association, which runs the Triguna Sen auditorium, had decided to cancel the booking for a pre-release screening of the film in their hall.

The producers, however, went ahead with the screening at an open-air space in the campus saying they have support from another group of students.

"The students arranged a bed-sheet and turned it into a screen to see my film. Many watched it and realised it's not what they were thinking. It is a realistic film," Agnihotri, who has in the past made films like "Hate Story" and "Goal", told PTI.

Even as the screening was going on in the evening after classes were over, the agitators carried on with a protest demonstration near the spot.

The agitating students said they have nothing against the screening of the film, but were protesting against the "divisive content" in the film, which also stars Anupam Kher.

"We all know Kher's views in the whole debate on whatever happened in JNU. He is acting in this film which has divisive content. We are protesting against that," Sounak Mukherjee, a first year MA student of English department, said.

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