The Supreme Court has stayed the West Bengal government’s ban on controversial film The Kerala Story but the movie’s return to big screens in the state remains in doubt with multiplexes moving on to newer releases.
The country’s apex court on Thursday lifted the state’s ban on the film but asked its makers to add a disclaimer saying the movie is a “fictionalised version” and there is no authentic data to the claim that 32,000 Hindu and Christian girls converted to Islam.
The Kerala Story, starring Adah Sharma, was released in cinemas on May 5. Directed by Sudipto Sen, the film claims women from Kerala were forced to convert to Islam and recruited by the terror group Islamic State.
News18 spoke to several multiplex managers in Kolkata who said they were unsure about bringing The Kerala Story back to the screens from a business standpoint.
“New films have already been slotted. We can’t say for sure how to go about this,” said Arijit Dutta, owner of Priya Cinema, where the movie was initially released and then pulled out.
The manager of another prominent multiplex said on condition of anonymity that no official communication has been received so far after the Supreme Court ruling. “New films have come. We have not got any new notification from the government. We don’t know what to do about this,” he said.
Amid the confusion, director Sudipto Sen is scheduled to be in Kolkata on Friday and is likely to meet distributors and multiplex owners to resolve the issue.
The ruling Trinamool Congress, meanwhile, said the Mamata Banerjee government took the decision to ban the film based on “definite inputs”.
“Mamata Banerjee has definite input, otherwise why will she ban (the movie)? Now the court has given its order. The court order is final,” party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee said.
Sources told News18 that the Supreme Court verdict has been discussed internally but there is no instruction yet on the matter.
Apart from the ban in West Bengal, theatre owners in Tamil Nadu had also decided to not show the movie in the state.
Observing that the law cannot be used to “put a premium on public intolerance”, the Supreme Court has also directed the Tamil Nadu government and police to take any “tacit or express, formal or informal” to prevent screening of the movie in the state and provide adequate security to moviegoers.
“Bad films bomb at the box office… Moreover, the state is duty-bound to maintain the law and order as the film has been granted certification by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC),” a bench, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, said.
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