Supreme Court to hear plea against ban of ‘The Kerala Story’ in West Bengal

The bench said it had on Tuesday posted for 15 May a separate plea against the Kerala High Court order refusing to stay the release of the movie and the fresh plea would also be heard on that day.

However, the bench agreed to list the plea for hearing on 12 May after Salve said, “We are losing money every day.”

Related: SC to hear plea challenging Kerala HC order; UP makes film tax-free

What the Kerala High Court said

On 5 May, the day the film was scheduled to be released, the Kerala High Court refused a stay on the movie and said its trailer did 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.

The court 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”.

Related: Lukewarm response in the South, but making money elsewhere

Ban, screenings of the movie

Meanwhile, The Kerala Story has been made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh.

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath announced it 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.

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.

Review: ‘The Kerala Story’ depicts a Kerala that is unfamiliar to most Malayalis.

‘Based on true events’

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.

Related: In Karnataka, Modi invokes ‘The Kerala Story’ to talk terrorism

Producers Guild condemns ban

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.

(With PTI inputs)