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By Sreya Chatterjee: Director Sudipto Sen’s ‘The Kerala Story’ has found itself at the centre of a controversy ever since the release of its teaser. Questions have also been raised over the filmmaker’s claim that 32,000 women in Kerala were converted to Islam and sent to Syria. Addressing a press conference on Tuesday, Sudipto Sen said the 32,000 figure used in the movie was an “arbitrary number, but backed with some facts”.
“The 32,000 figure doesn’t matter. Even if one girl faced conversion, the story needs to be told. You have watched the film, does the number actually matters? The 32,000 figure is an arbitrary number but backed with some facts,” Sen said.
“Former Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy spoke about conversions. They said that 900 girls were converted in 2014. Then in 2016, there was no figure for 2015. We have back calculated and also added the number of years after that and arrived at the figure. But people in Kerala say that number is more than 50,000,” he added.
ALSO READ | Censor Board gives The Kerala Story ‘A’ certificate, removes 10 scenes, including interview with ex-CM
Sen alleged he had filed an RTI with the Kerala government to get figures of the women who had gone missing, but was given a fake website link.
ROW OVER THE MOVIE
The Kerala Story is facing stiff opposition in Kerala, with several political parties demanding a ban on the movie.
The CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala have lashed out against the movie, saying freedom of expression was not a licence to spew venom in society, and the film was an attempt to destroy the communal harmony of the state.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has accused the makers of The Kerala Story of “taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of ‘love jihad’”.
“In the trailer of the movie, we see a hoax that 32,000 women in Kerala were converted and became members of the Islamic State. This bogus story is a product of the Sangh Parivar’s lie factory,” CM Vijayan said.
ALSO READ | The Kerala Story actor Adah Sharma says, ‘not propaganda, watch film before judging it’
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