Theatres in Bengal continue to shun showing 'The Kerala Story'

The Kerala Story continued to remain absent from Bengal's movie halls for a second day in a row on Saturday as theatre-owners remained aloof from screening the controversial film.

The Supreme Court had overturned a West Bengal government ban on the movie on Thursday and its distributors had tried to interest theatre owners in picking it up, without much success till now.

Satadeep Saha, distributor of the film in Bengal, told PTI, "There is no change in the situation no theatre owner has said yes as yet (to showing the film)".

On Friday the director Sudipto Sen had speculated that movie hall owners here were perhaps afraid of showing the controversial film, which the state had earlier banned fearing it may cause "communal disturbances".

Sen at a press conference on Friday claimed he has been told by several hall owners that they have been threatened "by certain quarters" and asked not to screen the film.

The Kerala Story which was released in theatre halls on May 5, claims that women from Kerala were forced to convert to Islam and recruited by the terror group Islamic State (IS).

The apex court's overturning of West Bengal's ban on the movie was accompanied by a ruling that the movie be screened with a disclaimer that it was a "fictionalised version" and there was no authentic data on claims on the number of women who converted to Islam.

An earlier movie made by Vivek Agnihotri which attracted similar controversy, The Kashmir Files was released in March 2022 in the cinema halls in India including Bengal despite curbs due to the pandemic. It was shown in over 100 theatres in West Bengal.