Vipul Shah says The Kerala Story makers will address their claim of 32000 women radicalised by Islamic fundamentalists: ‘This topic is not completely over’

Commenting on the misleading figures in the teaser, Shah told DNA that the court is yet to decide if their claim was entirely false. And, while they have given the date of July 18 to the makers to hear the matter, they were told to add the disclaimer in the film.

He said, “The thing is that the case is not yet concluded. The hearing was only about the ban. In that hearing, there was this argument about that this 32,000 number and the court decided to hear that matter on a later date. It’s listed on July 18. In the meanwhile, they wanted to end this controversy. So, they told us to add this disclaimer.”

Shah added, “We have always abided by whatever the courts have said and we did the same. There is no problem. But this topic is not completely over. We will address it, don’t worry.”

The Kerala Story was banned in West Bengal but the Supreme Court stayed the West Bengal government’s order banning the screening of the film. The film also got a divided response from the film industry and critics. Actor Kamal Haasan recently called the film a ‘propaganda’.

He was quoted as saying by news agency ANI, “I told you, it’s propagandist films that I am against. It’s not enough if you write ‘true story’ at the bottom as a logo. It has to really be true, and that is not true.”

The Indian Express’ film critic Shubhra Gupta called it ‘a poorly made rant’: “The film itself is nothing but a poorly-made, poorly-acted rant which is not interested in interrogating the social complexities of Kerala, an India state proud of its multi-religious, multi-ethnic identity. All it is intent upon is creating the most simplistic, paper-thin characters to tell us that Kerala is in danger because its innocent, naïve Hindu and Christian girls are being swayed by evil Muslim men, and radicalised to the point of no return.”