Mumbai: Filmmaker Vivek Agnihotri has been served a legal notice by the grandson of former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri ahead of the release of his film The Tashkent Files.

Vivek claims that Lal Bahadur Shastri's grandsons raised objections about the film and have asked to stop its release. The movie revolves around the mysterious death of Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966, soon after the signing of the Tashkent Agreement between India and Pakistan to end their 1965 war.

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In an interview, with a news agency, Vivek told, "We have been sent a legal notice last night demanding to stop the release of the film. Three days ago, we had the film's screening in Delhi where he (Shastri's grandson) watched the film, loved it and appreciated it. I don't know what happened, but I have a feeling that someone from the top family of Congress has coerced him to send us the legal notice. This is not a propaganda film. I don't know why people have a problem with the film. I am yet to respond to the notice. I am planning to hold a press conference."

The notice says that the film is trying to create unwarranted and unnecessary controversy, and will hurt the emotions and sentiments of a large section of the society.

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The first trailer for the movie was released on March 25. According to our history book, we know Shashtri died due to a heart attack, but many of his supporters and family members believe that his death was a political conspiracy and a pre-planned murder. But who knows, what is the truth.  

From the movie, Vivek is trying to seek answers to the questions on the table such as how did Shashtri get a heart attack or did someone poison the milk that he used to drink before going off to sleep at night? And why there was no bell in his room to call his helper that he could have called for help when he got an attack.

Immediately after the former PM's death, the family members of Shastri officially requested a post-mortem to the then acting Prime Minister Gulzarilal Nanda denied. With this film, Agnihotri is trying to seek the truth behind one of 'the biggest cover-up in Indian history', and he hopes his movie might have an answer to the mystery. 

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Interestingly in the trailer, there was a part, which suggests that Shastri had news about Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s whereabouts.

The film, slated to release on Friday, features Naseeruddin Shah, Pallavi Joshi, Shweta Basu, Pankaj Tripathi, Mithun Chakraborty and Vinay Pathak in pivotal roles.