In a statement, the Producers Guild of India condemned the state-enforced ban on the movie, as films are regulated by CBFC.
Image from the teaser of Kerala Love Story.
The Supreme Court, on Tuesday 9 May, agreed to hear, on 15 May, the plea against the Kerala High Court order refusing to stay the release of the controversial film The Kerala Story.
Senior advocate Kapil Sibal mentioned the matter for urgent listing before a bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha.
When the bench inquired whether the high court had passed an order in the matter, Sibal said it had refused to stay the release of the film.
“We will keep it on Monday (15 May),” the bench said.
On 5 May, the Kerala High Court had refused to stay the release of the movie and said its trailer does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole.
The high court noted the producers’ submission that they do not intend to retain an “offending teaser” which contained a statement that “32,000 women” from Kerala were converted and joined the IS group.
It said the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) has examined the movie and found it suitable for public exhibition.
The high court also noted that the producers have published a disclaimer along with the movie which specifically says it is fictionalised and a dramatised version of events and that the film doesn’t claim accuracy or factuality of historic events.
The filmmakers changed the teaser from “32,000 women” who were converted and recruited by ISIS, to “three women”.
The film, dubbed as “Sangh Parivar propaganda” by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, seeks to portray Kerala as a fertile ground for religious conversions and recruitment to the Islamic State and has evoked widespread ire in the state.
Meanwhile, The Kerala Story will be tax-free in Uttar Pradesh, Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced on Tuesday, prompting the Opposition Samajwadi Party to say the state government should not use cinema and literature to impose a “poisonous agenda on the nation”.
The announcement comes days after the Madhya Pradesh government said it will give tax-free status to the film, while West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee ordered an immediate ban on its screening.
In Tamil Nadu, multiplexes cancelled screenings of the controversial film on Sunday.
“The Kerala Story to be made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh,” Adityanath said on his official Twitter handle.
'The Kerala Story' उत्तर प्रदेश में टैक्स फ्री की जाएगी।
— Yogi Adityanath (मोदी का परिवार) (@myogiadityanath) May 9, 2023
According to Director Information Shishir, the UP chief minister will attend a special screening of the film in Lucknow on Friday.
“The Kerala Story will be made tax-free in UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath will watch the special screening of the movie with his cabinet on 12 May in Lucknow,” he said.
Reacting to the decision without naming anyone, Samajwadi Party National General Secretary Shivpal Singh Yadav said in a tweet in Hindi, “Leave ‘entertainment’ for ‘entertainment’ and don’t use cinema and literature to impose your poisonous agenda on the nation.”
“Any art that stems from the womb of hatred will be destructive for the nation and the society,” he added in his tweet.
'मनोरंजन' को 'मनोरंजन' के लिए छोड़ दें और सिनेमा व साहित्य का प्रयोग अपने जहरीले एजेंडे को देश पर थोपने के लिए न करें।
नफरत की कोख से उपजी कोई भी कला राष्ट्र और समाज के लिए विध्वंसकारी होगी।#TheKerlaStory— Shivpal Singh Yadav (@shivpalsinghyad) May 9, 2023
The Kerala Story starring Adah Sharma was released in cinemas on Friday, 5 May.
Directed by Sudipto Sen, “The Kerala Story” depicts how women from Kerala were forced to convert to Islam and recruited by the terror group Islamic State (IS) group. It has kicked up a political storm in the state.
On the day of the film’s release, Prime Minister Narendra Modi credited the movie for bringing out terror conspiracies and using it to attack the Congress during an election rally in poll-bound Karnataka.
UP BJP secretary Abhijat Mishra on Saturday organised the screening of the controversial film for about 100 college girls. The BJP leader booked a theatre and said the movie should be shown to young women to prevent them from falling prey to the so-called “love jihad”, a discredited idea.
“Love jihad” is a term often used by right-wing activists to allege a ploy by Muslim men to lure Hindu women into religious conversion through marriage.
Mishra said the movie is based on true events and shows how gullible girls are manipulated and then converted.
In Karnataka, where Prime Minister Modi endorsed the movie saying that it speaks about the reality in Kerala, BJP president JP Nadda attended a special screening organised in Bengaluru on Sunday.
On the day of its release, at Thiruvananthapuram’s Aries Plus, two shows were held with the “houseful” board hanging on its gate. The board went missing after the two shows.
Theatre staff later explained that the two shows were organised by Thapasya, the cultural wing of BJP in Kerala, for its members and some of the fellow travellers of the Sangh Parivar.
RSS pracharak S Sethumadhavan, BJP state secretary P Sudheer and noted film producer G Suresh Kumar were among those who viewed the film. The screening was free. Thapasya met the expenses.
In a statement, the Producers Guild of India on Tuesday condemned the state-enforced ban on the movie.
“The Producers Guild of India is distressed by and would like to record its strong objection to, state-enforced bans on The Kerala Story.
“As emphasised by us on several occasions in the past, film releases are regulated by CBFC and any film that complies with this statutory requirement should face no further hurdles in having the paying public decide on its fate,” the trade body said.
According to the CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala, the film falsely claims that 32,000 women got converted, radicalised and deployed in terror missions in India and the world. The filmmakers later changed the figure in the film’s trailer.
Meanwhile, the former finance minister and CPI(M) leader Thomas Isaac said that there was no ban for the film in Kerala.
“We sharply criticise and campaign against the false “The Kerala Story”. But we did not ban it. It doesn’t matter. Not many in Kerala watch it. Of the 600 theatres only 19 screen it, that too, mostly a show a day. Another defeat for BJP’s efforts to polarise Kerala,” he said in a tweet.
We sharply criticise and campaign against the false “The Kerala Story”. But we did not ban it. It doesn’t matter. Not many in Kerala watch it. Of the 600 theatres only 19 screen it, that too, mostly a show a day. Another defeat for BJP’s efforts to polarise Kerala. pic.twitter.com/4MgekxG7vq
— Thomas Isaac (@drthomasisaac) May 9, 2023
(With PTI inputs)
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