In what appears to be an endorsement of the controversial film The Kerala Story that had a country-wide release on Friday, May 5, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has said that the film is based on a terror conspiracy. “It shows the ugly truth of terrorism and exposes terrorists' design. Congress is opposing the film made on terrorism and standing with terror tendencies,” said PM Modi, while speaking at an election rally in Ballari in Karnataka.
Modi also said that “Congress has shielded terrorism for the vote bank.”
The film that claims to be on the story of conversion to Islam of young girls from Kerala and made to fight in Syria and Yemen for ISIS, has been widely criticised as Islamophobic. It has also been pointed out by fact-checking news site, Alt News, that the numbers of young women said to have been converted in the film–32,000– is incorrect. The fact-checking site, after investigating the claims, said that the film is based on incorrect numbers and manipulated statements.
#WATCH | 'The Kerala Story' film is based on a terror conspiracy. It shows the ugly truth of terrorism and exposes terrorists' design. Congress is opposing the film made on terrorism and standing with terror tendencies. Congress has shielded terrorism for the vote bank: PM… pic.twitter.com/qlUQlc3qQf
— ANI (@ANI) May 5, 2023
Three days before the movie was released, Mohammed Zubair, one of the founders of Alt News also pointed out that the description under the teaser on YouTube changed the number of girls recruited from Kerala from 32,000 to three. Receiving flack for discretely changing the number, the makers of the film reverted to the number 32,000 in the description.
The film has also been condemned by Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan, who called The Kerala Story a product of the Sangh Parivar’s “lie factory,” and added that, “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.”
Earlier today, May 5, the producer of the film, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, told the Kerala High Court that they will remove the contested number of 32,000 from their social media accounts and the film’s teaser.
The Kerala Story is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah. The film has been courting controversy ever since the teaser was released in November 2022. The teaser, featuring one of the lead actors, Adah Sharma, claimed that ‘32,000’ girls from Kerala were recruited by the Islamic terror outfit, ISIS.