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By Latha Srinivasan: Director Sudipto Sen’s Hindi movie, The Kerala Story, has been in the news ever since the teaser was launched last year. The movie, which will release on May 5, has been issued an A certificate by the Censor Board. The CBFC reportedly deleted 10 scenes, one of them being an interview with an interview with a former Kerala CM. The Kerala CM in question is rumoured to be VS Achuthanandan.
OTHER DELETED SCENES
One other scene which is believed to have been deleted reportedly had ‘dialogues and inappropriate references to all Hindu Gods’. Some dialogues were also apparently tweaked. A dialogue purportedly stated ‘Indian communists are biggest hypocrites’ and the word Indian is said to have been deleted from this.
There was a TV interview given by a former Kerala CM where he stated that Kerala over the next two decades would become a Muslim-majority state as youngsters are being influenced to convert to Islam. The CBFC ordered that this entire TV interview be deleted from the film.
CONTROVERSY
The Kerala Story became controversial when the teaser (released in November 2022), featuring a character named Shalini Unnikrishnan aka Fatima Ba, stated that 32000 women were recruited by ISIS in Kerala and she was one of them.
Currently, the Kerala government, including the Opposition leaders, have demanded the film be banned in the state. CPM and Congress did not want the Hindi film releasing there, but film exhibitors shared a different opinion. Film exhibitors stated that the audience will eventually watch the film on OTT, so it is better to release it in theatres.
The Muslim Youth League in Kerala has announced a Rs 1 crore reward to anyone who proves that 32000 Malayali women were, in fact, radicalised by IS.
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