The Kerala High Court refused to issue a stay order on the release of Bollywood film The Kerala Story but the film's producers have said they will remove the controversial teaser that had claimed conversion of 32,000 Hindu girls by ISIS.
The Kerala High Court has refused to issue a stay order on the release of the film The Kerala Story. The Sudipto Sen directorial hit the screens on Friday (May 5) and has been mired in controversies for months. On Friday, the High Court asserted that ‘secular Kerala society will accept the film for what it is’ and refused to entertain the notion that it will create ‘sectarianism and conflict in the society’. However, the film’s producers have told the court that they will be removing a teaser of the film that had claimed mass conversions of women into Islam had taken place.
Reacting to the petitioner’s claims that the film would create disharmony, the court sought to know whether the entire trailer was against society. “Nothing will happen just because the film is screened. The teaser of the film was released in November. What was offensive in the film? What is wrong in saying that Allah is the only God? The country gives the citizen the right to believe in their religion and God and spread it. What was offensive in the trailer?,” the court observed while considering a batch of petitions seeking to cancel the censor certificate of the film
A Division bench comprising of Justice N Nagaresh and Justice Mohammed Nias CP has considered the matter. The bench observed that similar films had released earlier as well. "So many movies have already come out about such organizations. There have been references against Hindu monks and Christian priests in many films before. Did you see all this in the way of fiction? What is so special now? How does this movie create sectarianism and conflict in the society?" the court said.
On Friday, as per Live Law, the producers told the court that the teaser of the movie, which claimed that over 32,000 women from Kerala were recruited to ISIS, will be removed from their social media account
The film, set in Kerala, deals with the issue of religious conversion and also touches on the concept of love jihad, the alleged entrapment of Hindu women by Muslim men and their subsequent conversion to Islam. The petitioners had argued that the film would inject poison into the minds of innocent people.The petitioners argued that no agency has yet detected the existence of love jihad in Kerala.
Helmed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, the film has triggered a massive political row with various leaders reacting to the upcoming movie.The Kerala Story stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in the lead roles. The trailer of the film came under fire as it claimed that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group, ISIS. Faced with backlash the makers then withdrew the figure and called the movie the story of three women from Kerala, in its trailer description.
(With ANI inputs)
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