Mamata Banerjee announces ban on ‘The Kerala Story’ in West Bengal
West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee announced a ban on Sudipto Sen's film "The Kerala Story" on Monday (7 April).
A news agency ANI quoted Mamata Banerjee saying, "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."
She also said, "What is The Kashmir files? it is to humiliate one section. What is The Kerala story?... It is a distorted story."
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
In response, the film producer said, "If that is what she has done, we will take legal action. Whatever is possible under the provisions of law, we will fight."
The Kerala story landed controversy right after its release. The trailer showed that 32,000 girls from Kerala went missing and joined the terrorist group, ISIS, later.
Even though the film is being criticised all over India Prime Minister Narendra Modi backed up the film by saying "Congress is opposing the film made on terrorism and standing with terror tendencies. Congress has shielded terrorism for the vote bank," reports Times of India.
Earlier, the Kerala High Court had mentioned that the producers have published a disclaimer along with the movie which specifically says that the film has fictionalised and is a dramatised version of events. It also noted that the film doesn't claim the accuracy or factuality of historic events.
