The Kerala Story's ISIS-joining women’s number came down from 32k to 3 in YouTube description

Kochi: Amid criticism of a propaganda movie that seeks to tarnish the image of Kerala, the makers of the controversial film 'The Kerala Story' have altered their claim, previously stated in the YouTube description, that 32,000 women from Kerala were converted to Islam and forced to join ISIS.

The change reduced the number to 3 ahead of the supposed release of the film on Friday. The new description of the movie claims that it is a compilation of the true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala.

The teaser of the movie has faced widespread condemnation for allegedly targeting the Muslim community with hate-invoking dialogues, false claims and canards, while, the movie's director, Sudipto Sen, maintains that it is based on true incidents.

Sen, however, denied the allegation that the movie portrays Islam in bad light or mentions 'Love Jihad', a term used by right-wing groups to allege that Muslim men seduce Hindu women into converting to Islam.

Critics allege that the film claims falsely that thousands of women from Kerala were being converted to Islam forcibly and recruited to the IS.

Several political parties in Kerala, including the CPI-M, Congress, and the Indian Union Muslim League, have spoken out against the movie, calling it propaganda and a divisive attempt to polarise Kerala society in line with the right-wing agenda. The Muslim League has even offered one crore rupees to anyone who can prove that the number of women claimed by the film, who was converted and recruited by ISIS, is true.