The controversies around the film ‘The Kerala Story’ have no end, amid protests and threat calls, Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad calls for the public hanging of the producers. The film is already facing heat in different states of the country.
“Under the name of ‘The Kerala Story’, a state and its women were defamed. The official figure of three was projected as 32,000. The person who produced this fictional movie should be hanged in public”, ANI quoted the NCP leader.
He tweeted in Marathi, which translates as, “In other words, you want to defame your female sisters? To show that our females sisters? To show that our female sisters are stupid and don’t understand anything and ultimately to portray women as subordinate in a male-dominated culture. This is the real truth of the movie based on Kerala. Such films are made with the calculation of creating violence, and hatred on the basis of lies and winning elections through the same”
While speaking at a news channel Awhad also stated, “The Kerala Story” is defaming women of the state and that producer has created a fictional story for which he should be hanged in public.
Meanwhile, Tamil Nadu Theatre Owners Association on May 9 said that they have stopped the screening of the movie ‘The Kerala Story’ from May 7 to maintain law and order in the state. The association also stated the poor collection on the second day as also the reason behind the decision.
Notably, the Chief Minister of Bengal Mamata Banerjee also banned the film in the state citing law and order issue. The Trinamool Congress government banned the film in West Bengal on May 8. Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, “West Bengal govt has decided to ban the movie The Kerala Story. This is to avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and to maintain peace in the state”.
While taking a dig at ‘The Kashmir Files’, the Chief Minister stated, “What was ‘The Kashmir Files’? It was meant purely to humiliate a particular section of society. What is ‘The Kerala Story’? It is a distorted story”. The CM instructed the state chief secretary to withdraw the film from all theatres where it was playing.
The BJP-ruled states, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh have declared the film tax-free. Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a rally in poll-bound Karnataka’s Ballari mentioned the film, saying it exposed the consequences of terrorism in society.
“The movie ‘The Kerala story’ is trying to expose the consequences of terrorism in a society, especially in a state like Kerala which is a beautiful land of hardworking, talented and intellectual people. The Congress party is now trying to ban the film and support the terror elements”, the prime minister said.
