The Kerala Story: Mamata Banerjee announces ban in West Bengal, says it is to avoid hatred
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West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has announced a ban on the controversial film 'The Kerala Story' on Monday. She said that the move is to avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and to maintain peace in the state.
She told ANI that the purpose of the film 'The Kashmir Files' was to humiliate one section. "What is The Kerala story?... It is a distorted story," she added.
The producer of the film Vipul Shah said that he will take legal action against the government of West Bengal. "Whatever is possible under the provisions of law, we will fight."
The film has been at the core of controversy since the trailer said the story is about 32,000 girls from Kerala who went missing after being trapped by Muslims recruiting people for ISIS. After the backlash received online, the number was changed to the story of three girls. After its release, the film was criticised for propaganda and trying to demonise the state, and being Islamophobic. However, the box office collection of the film has been promising. On the third day, it collected Rs 16 crore.
In Tamil Nadu, the President of the Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners Association said that they have decided to ban the film because it is not worth going through the protests. "The film was only shown in a few multiplexes owned by pan-India groups, mostly PVR. Locally-owned multiplexes had already decided not to show the film, as it did not have any popular stars. In Coimbatore for instance, there were two shows so far -- one on Friday and one on Saturday. Even those did not do well. Given that, theatres decided that it was not worth going through the threat of protests and such," he told PTI.