The Kashmir Files actor Darshan Kumaar on Pahalgam terror attack: It was an attack on every Indian

For actor Darshan Kumaar, watching the terrifying footage that emerged from the terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir's Pahalgam brought back haunting memories of his time preparing for The Kashmir Files (2022). "I was shown the visuals of the victims of the exodus before the shoot started; sehen kar paana mushkil tha," says Darshan, who played a university student in the film that details the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s.

Also read: Ashoke Pandit on Atul Kulkarni's visit to Pahalgam after terror attack: ‘I asked him not to talk about such issues on…’

He elaborates, "The character I portrayed - the person now lives in the US. But even today, he cannot sleep with the lights off. Khauf hai unke andar abhi tak. When I saw the visuals from Pahalgam on the TV, I couldn't watch it."

Speaking about the victims of the attack, the 38-year-old gets reflective: "A newly married woman revealed that the terrorists shot her Naval officer husband while he was eating bhelpuri with her... woh pain sochiye, it can't be described. Yeh horror nahin bhool paayegi. This was an attack on all of us, on every Kashmiri, on every Indian. Agar hum uss sacchai se aankh band kar lenge, toh pehle aag Kashmir mein lagi hai, phir kahin aur lagegi."

Darshan also recalls the despair of Kashmiri locals while shooting The Kashmir Files a few years ago. "Itne dukhi thay wahan ke log that people were not visiting Kashmir. I saw on the news that nearly 2.5 crore people visited the state in 2024, a number which was earlier down to lakhs," he tells us, rueing, "Things had just started changing [before the attack."