Tamil Nadu tells Supreme Court

In a petition filed by the makers of The Kerala Story against the shadow ban in Tamil Nadu, the State has informed the Supreme Court that the film makers have falsely stated that the state has imposed a shadow ban on the movie. In fact, the poor response to the movie has led to its ouster from movie theatres, told the State. 

The state has filed it’s reply before the Supreme Court to the petition by the filmmakers alleging a de facto ban in Tamil Nadu over the movie. 

Tamil Nadu government has stated that the film makers have made a false statement that the state of Tamil Nadu has imposed a shadow or implicit ban by not allowing the movie to be screened in the theatres. 

“These false statements have been made deliberately to seek the undue indulgence of this court under Article 32 petition,” reads the reply. 

The state has submitted that the movie was released across 19 multiplexes and the petitioners have not produced any document to show that the state has stopped the screening of the film. 

However, the theatre owners had voluntarily stopped screening the film on May 7th onwards due to poor performance of actors/ poor response to the movie or lack of well-known actors in the movie, reads the reply. 

Tamil Nadu has submitted that it had in fact deployed more police forces in every multiplex so that cinema goers can watch the movie without any law and order issues. 

“Over 965 police personnel including 25 DSPs were posted for the protection of the 21 movie theatres which had screened the film,” reads the reply filed by Tamil Nadu police. 

The state has clarified that it is the cinema theatre owners who had themselves stopped screening the film due to poor response to the movie and that the state of Tamil Nadu cannot do anything to increase viewership for the movie apart from giving security to the theatres screening the film.

The Kerala Story is a Hindi film about a group of women from Kerala who join ISIS. The film was released on May 5.

Even before its release, the film invited criticism from several quarters. In Kerala, the ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress party alleged that it is a propaganda movie promoting a fake narrative and an agenda of right wing organizations.