Hindu filmmaker working on anti-Hindu riots in Sambhal given death threats by Muslim man

Case ID : 8da163f | Location : Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India | Date of Incident : Sun, 26 October, 2025

Case ID : 8da163f

Sambhal, Uttar Pradesh, India

26 October, 2025

Hindu filmmaker working on anti-Hindu riots in Sambhal given death threats by Muslim man

Hate speech against Hindus

Violent threats

Case Summary

Film Producer Amit Jani, who had been working on the film “Sambhal Files,” had received death threats linked to both the making of his movie and his political campaigning plans in the upcoming Bihar elections. Amit Jani had announced the production of his film “Sambhal Files.” In preparation, he met victims of past riots and violent incidents and conducted research by visiting various historical locations and buildings in Sambhal. On 27 October 2025, while he was returning to Sambhal from Rampur, he received a phone call threatening his life. The caller had warned that he would be killed if he continued working on the film. He reported that a man named Mohammad Shabbir, calling from a Kashmiri number, had threatened to blow him up along with his vehicle if he continued with the project. The caller had warned him not to proceed with “Sambhal Files” and not to appeal for votes in favour of the BJP-NDA alliance. Jani stated that after making “Udaipur Files,” he had already faced a series of threats so severe that the Central Government had provided him with CRPF security. As the release date for “Sambhal Files” approached, the number and seriousness of threats had escalated further. During filming in Sambhal, he was repeatedly warned of potential attacks. Concerned for his safety, Jani had written to the Superintendent of Police and to the Ministry of Home Affairs, urging a full investigation and the immediate arrest of those involved. He cited a phone threat in which the caller stated, “When we can shoot a CO, who do you think you are?” The director feared a possible mob lynching in Sambhal and expressed deep anxiety over his personal security. Jani said that the Sambhal communal clashes had connections with Kashmiri and Pakistani terrorists, a reality Jani was attempting to depict in his film. In addition to the threat from Kashmir, he had also received similar intimidation from Pakistan, Bihar, Canada, and West Bengal.

Why it is Hate Crime ?

This case has been added to the tracker under the primary category- Hate Speech against Hindus. The subcategory selected is- Violent Threats. Violent threats, explicit, implicit or implied, are the most dangerous form of hate speech since it goes beyond discriminatory and prejudicial language to express the intent of causing harm to an individual or a group of people based on their religious identity and faith. There could be several different kinds of threats that are issued to Hindus based on religious animosity. An explicit threat would mean the direct threat of violence towards an individual Hindu, a group of Hindus or Hindus at large. Physical violence, death threats, threats of destruction of property belonging to Hindus and threats of genocide would mean explicit threats against Hindus for their religious identity. Implicit threats may not be a direct threat but implied through the use of symbols of actions – for example, in the Nupur Sharma case, other than explicit threats, there were also implicit threats when Islamists took to the streets to burn and beat her effigies. It implies that they want to do the same to Nupur Sharma, which is considered an implicit threat. Violent threats can be delivered in person, through letters, phone calls, graffiti, or increasingly through social media and other online platforms. It would be important to understand that a threat – explicit or implicit, online or offline – to an individual who happens to be a Hindu does not qualify as a religiously motivated threat. Such a threat, while vile and dangerous, could be owing to non-religious reasons and/or personal animosity. To qualify as a religiously motivated threat, it would need to exhibit an indication that the individual is being targeted for religious reasons and/or owing to his/her religious identity as a Hindu. In this case, the bombing threat issued to Hindu filmmaker Amit Jani constituted a direct and unambiguous case of hate speech motivated by anti-Hindu animosity. Such threats are routinely issued by Muslim radicals against non-Muslims, especially Hindus, whom they want to intimidate and subjugate. In this incident, the Hindu filmmaker was threatened with bombing because he attempted to uncover Islamic atrocities against Hindus in Sambhal. This threat represented not merely an attack on an individual but also an assault on Hindu activism, cultural pride, and community defence—rooted in deep-seated religious hatred towards Hindus. Such violent threats reflect the entrenched hostility and radicalisation among the Muslim community that aim to silence and intimidate those who speak for Hindu victims of religious persecution. The threat directed at Amit Jani did not arise from personal conflict but from explicit religious malice targeting his faith and his attempts to expose Islamic communal violence, which continues to endanger Hindus across multiple regions of India. It underscores the deliberate intent to harm, terrorise, or eliminate individuals who challenge Islamic radicalism and violence. This incident, therefore, stands as a glaring example of religiously motivated hate speech and demonstrates the alarming rise of violent threats directed against Hindus who courageously speak up for their community. Given that this case meets the parameters of a religiously motivated hate speech, it is being added to the hate crime database of the Hinduphobia Tracker.