Pallavi Joshi details the logistics of gory riot scene from ‘The Bengal Files’

Mumbai, Aug 31 (IANS) Actress-producer Pallavi Joshi, who is awaiting the release of her upcoming film ‘The Bengal Files’, has revealed the details of the logistics of a gory scene from the film’s shoot.

The scene in question portrays the after-effects of a riot in the undivided Bengal back in the day. The actress-producer spoke with IANS at the residence during the promotions of the film, and shared how the team shot the scene with dummy bodies, and prosthetic blood yet it was very taxing to shoot.

She told IANS, “We have heard that there were hundreds of people, thousands of people who were killed, but to actually show them in those many numbers was so overwhelming. And we had a lot of dummy bodies, but then there were a lot of live actors also, or all our extras, who were playing bodies, and then they had to be blackened, and then blood was like literally poured with buckets all over them. We are still technically doing everything correctly. We were so consumed in the process, thinking, ‘This wound is not looking real enough’. And you apply yourself there, but once the shooting is done, when the day is done, when you come back home, and when you lie down in the bed, and then when you go back to realize what you have achieved through the day”.

She further mentioned, “All those images that come back, they haunt you because you realize that what you have just shot and that, ‘Oh I have been so creative’, all of it has actually happened with people. And the number of dead bodies we’ve shown, those many people actually died. So when these things hit you, they really hit you, and you can’t sleep at night”.

‘The Bengal Files’ is based on the Direct Action Day, which took place on August 16, 1946. It presents the events of one of the darkest chapters of India, when people were brutally killed following riots in Kolkata. The Direct Action Day riots sparked off several riots between Muslims and Hindus/Sikhs in Noakhali, Bihar, and Punjab.

Presented by Tej Narayan Agarwal & I Am Buddha, The film is a worldwide release by Zee Studios, and will arrive in theatres on September 5, 2025.

–IANS

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