Union Minister Smriti Irani on Tuesday hit out at the political parties who stood in opposition to the film ‘The Kerala Story’ and said that those opposing the film support terror organisations. “Every political party that stands in opposition of this film, stands with terrorists’ organisation, that is my belief as a parent…this film depicts entrapment of young women… so that they can be trapped by terrorist organisations,” she said.
“Those political organisations that disallow citizens of our country from viewing this are standing in support of such terror methods…My appeal to parents, society at large is that this film is a wake-up call… It’s not infotainment, it’s not entertainment,” the minister added.
The union minister’s attack comes amid the governments of West Bengal and Tamil Nadu banning the film in their state. “Why did they make Kashmir Files? To humiliate one section. What is this Kerala files? If they can prepare Kashmir files to condemn the Kashmiri people… now they are defaming Kerala state also. Everyday they are defaming through their narrative,” Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee said calling for a ban on the screening of the film in her state.
President of Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners Association, M Subramaniam, also confirmed the news that multiplexes in the state had decided to stop the screening of ‘The Kerala Story.’ Speaking to PTI he said, “The film was only shown in a few multiplexes owned by pan-India groups, mostly PVR. Locally-owned multiplexes had already decided not to show the film, as it did not have any popular stars. In Coimbatore for instance, there were two shows so far — one on Friday and one on Saturday. Even those did not do well. Given that, theatres decided that it was not worth going through the threat of protests and such.”
However, the vice president of Tamil Nadu BJP, Narayanan Thirupathy said that the DMK government had pulled down the film from all the theatres as a part of vote bank politics. “Tamil Nadu government – which was not able to legally ban the film in the state – is now trying to remove the film from all theatres. This is condemnable. Due to vote bank politics, the DMK government is not allowing this movie to be screened in the state,” Thirupathy had told news agency ANI.
Meanwhile, the film ‘The Kerala Story’ was given tax-free status in BJP-ruled Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand on Tuesday. The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) examined the movie and found it suitable for public exhibition.