On Thursday, May 18, the Supreme Court stayed the West Bengal government's ban on The Kerala Story and also directed the Tamil Nadu government to conduct peaceful screenings of the film after the multiplex owners refused to screen the Adah Sharma-starrer in the South Indian state.

COMMERCIAL BREAK
SCROLL TO CONTINUE READING

A couple of days after the apex court's order, moviegoers are still finding it hard to get their tickets booked for The Kerala Story directorial in the state. One netizen took to the micro-blogging platform Twitter, tagged the director Sudipto Sen and wrote, "Sir, despite the SC order for the public exhibition of #TheKeralaStory in West Bengal, there's not even a single cinema house showing the film. I've just checked it on BMS. Please, do something and contact the multiplex owners, or else the SC order holds no meaning", while another netizen replied to Adah Sharma on Twitter and wrote, "I am unable to book BookMyShow tickets in Chennai and Kolkata." Adah reacted to both tweets with a heartbreaking emoji.

Meanwhile, the controversial film The Kerala Story refused to slow down at the ticket windows. The controversial film has grossed Rs 217 crore at the box office worldwide and has earned Rs 178.32 crore net at the domestic box office, as per the entertainment tracking portal Sacnilk.com.

Apart from Adah Sharma, the film also stars Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani, and Sonia Balani in key roles. The Sudipto Sen directorial has been mired in controversies since its teaser release last year over its questionable claims that 32,000 Hindu women from Kerala were forcibly converted to Islam in recent years. It has been dubbed as a propaganda piece by several opposition leaders, while PM Modi has himself endorsed the film.READ | Adah Sharma reveals she was nervous about grandmom's reaction to rape scenes in The Kerala Story | Exclusive