The director of the controversial film The Kerala Story Sudipto Sen has claimed that the northern part of Kerala is a “hub for a terror network” while interacting with the press on Wednesday, May 17. Responding to a journalist who questioned the filmmakers’ false claim of 32,000 women being forcibly converted to Islam and recruited to ISIS, and also challenged the film’s portrayal of a state which has the highest literacy rate in India, Sudipto Sen claimed, “Two Keralas exist. One is like a postcard — backwaters, beautiful landscapes, Kalaripayattu, dance, martial arts, elephants, etc. This is the Kerala that the whole world knows about. There is another Kerala, the northern part comprising Malappuram, Kasaragod, Kozhikode, which connects to south Karnataka, including Mangaluru. This is the hub of a terror network.”
Sudipto Sen further claimed that despite Kerala having the highest literacy rate in the country and performing well on the human development index (HDI) and other important parameters such as women’s and children’s health, several things were happening “under the carpet.” He said, “Instead of arguing with us, or ridiculing us, if we have sparked organic questions in your mind, go and report from Kasaragod and Kozhikode. Then you will learn the truth.”
Several people have criticised The Kerala Story for spreading propaganda and misrepresenting the number of women who had been radicalised from Kerala. While there are public records of only six women from Kerala joining ISIS, of which only one woman was a Hindu, the film deliberately obfuscates these cases with those of religious conversions for other reasons. Kerala’s Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan stated that the film is a product of the “Sangh’s lie factory.” He also slammed the movie for being an attempt by the Sangh to humiliate the state before the rest of the world. The Chief Minister further said, “Propaganda films and their otherisation of Muslims should be viewed in the context of various efforts made by the Sangh Parivar to gain an advantage in electoral politics in Kerala. Their usual tactics do not work in Kerala, so they are trying to spread their politics of division through the film based on fake stories.”
The Kerala Story was banned in West Bengal on May 8, three days after it was released. The state’s Chief Minister Mamta Banerjee said that the film was banned to “avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and to maintain peace in the state.” Defending the ban, the state also told the Supreme Court that The Kerala Story is based on manipulated facts and contains hate speech in multiple scenes, which may cause disharmony between communities. The West Bengal government said that if the movie is allowed to be exhibited, it would cause a breach of peace which will not be in the interest of justice.
Watch: The Kerala Story: What the truth is| No Filter with Dhanya Rajendran