Days after the release of its teaser on November 2, a petition has been filed against the makers of the controversial film The Kerala Story. In the petition filed on Saturday, November 5, addressed to Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairperson Prasoon Joshi, Tamil Nadu-based journalist Aravindakshan BR has requested the Board to place a ban on the film unless director Sudipto Sen and producer Vipul Amrutal Shah submit documents confirming the veracity of the information presented in the teaser.
The contentious teaser, featuring actor Adah Sharma, indicates that many women in Kerala are being forcibly converted and inducted into the Islamic State. The actor who is seen wearing a hijab in the teaser says, “My name was Shalini Unnikrishnan and I wanted to become a nurse and serve humanity. Now I am Fatima Ba, an ISIS terrorist in a jail in Afghanistan. I am not alone. There are 32,000 girls like me who have been converted and buried in the deserts of Syria and Yemen. A deadly game is being played to convert normal girls into dreaded terrorists in Kerala, and that too in the open. Will nobody stop them? This is my story. This is the story of those 32,000 girls. This is The Kerala Story.” The makers have also claimed that the film is inspired from true events.
Besides the CBFC, Aravindakshan also sent petitions to the Kerala Chief Minister’s Office (CMO) and the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Sunday. The former responded to the complaint on Monday, directing the chief of state police to take appropriate action. The complainant has further requested that the CBFC should be permitted to issue the censor clearance certificate for the film only after the film’s director reveals whether the claims made in the teaser are based on data produced by India’s intelligence agencies.
“It is a very bad thing to try and make the state of Kerala look like a state that supports terrorism through the film. This is not only against the unity and sovereignty of India, but also a disgrace to the country’s intelligence agencies,” the complaint reads. Observing that the film aims to show Kerala in a bad light, Aravindakshan tells TNM, “The teaser mentions that 32,000 women have been forcibly converted and joined ISIS. If that is the case, it means that nine women from Kerala have been converted and have joined ISIS every day in the past 10 years. That means 3,000 women have joined ISIS every year. This does not seem acceptable unless the information can be verified.”
While the teaser has been heavily criticised by a section of users on social media, some have also come out in support of The Kerala Story’s team.