Even as Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story continues to pack houses in small and big cities across the country, garnering over 81 crores in it’s first week alone, it is not left by the controversies surrounding it.
Initially some people online had called it a propaganda movie, accusing it of defaming only a certain religion/community – but the makers have stood firm with the film and so have those who’ve supported it by visiting theatres.
The film’s lead actress Adah Sharma also answered some of those questions ahead of the release of the film, in which she called-out those who were labeling it as a ‘propaganda’ against a certain religion.
In one of her video messages to her fans, Adah stated:
“Our film is not anti-any-religion, it is anti-terror organization of course. Our film is about girls getting drugged, brain-washed, rapped – human trafficking, forcefully impregnated and then raped again. Sometimes also by multiple people. And their children being made into suicide-bombers.”
She further said:
“So when you call it a propaganda movie, that is just diverting the topic and trivializing this. Our film is about life and death. I hope it spread awareness to all girls of all religions. And for the few, who are still saying it is propaganda, once they watch the film – I think they’ll change their mind.”
The Kerala Story, produced by Vipul Shah, was released on 5 May 2023 and was created on a small budget of 15 crores – which it recovered in it’s opening weekend alone.
The film continued to show an unexpected upward trend at the box office even as it stepped on workdays. It is expected the film’s second weekend would be even bigger than than the first one.