The trailer of Vipul Shah's The Kerala Story 2 has been dropped. It begins with a voice, saying, "In the next 25 years, Bharat will be an Islamic state and will be ruled by Sharia law." The film has been directed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh and stars Aishwarya Ojha, Aditi Bhatia and Ulka Gupta in lead roles. Goes Beyond opens with a chilling case from Rajasthan, where a family filed a POCSO complaint alleging their 16-year-old daughter was coerced into an Islamic conversion for marriage. The trailer depicts her being pressured into marriage and a forced religious conversion, setting a high-stakes tone for the sequel.
Why is audience criticising The Kerala Story 2?
The trailer has sparked a massive debate online, with viewers divided over the film's portrayal of reality. Some commenters argue that the incidents shown aren't exclusive to Kerala but reflect a broader, nationwide issue across all Indian states. Others have pushed back, suggesting the narrative feels more like a 'North Indian story' and questioning why the title remains tied to Kerala when the trailer features other regions.
Soon after the trailer was released, it received criticisms from the audience. A netizen wrote, "It's not the reality of Kerala state, it's the reality of all Indian states. This type of incident happened all over india," another one commented, "kerala story❌delhi story✅," a netizen commented, "This looks the same as #TheKeralaStory and I highly doubt if it works on the Box-office." A netizen wrote, "Ek baar kya chal gayi, franchise hi bana diya. This is why Bollywood as an industry is not growing. Inko sirf easy paise kamane se matlab hai, bas," "How is a so called “secular” nation allowing this?" a user wrote, "Where is Kerala?" others also dropped similar reactions.
About the movie: While the first instalment focused on Indian women who were radicalised and manipulated into joining the Islamic State, the makers revealed that The Kerala Story 2 shifts its focus to various forms of exploitation occurring within India. To present this, the film draws from three representative storylines inspired by more than a dozen real court cases from different parts of the country.
According to a report in Hindustan Times, producer Vipul Shah said, "When we make a film like The Kerala Story: Goes Beyond, we wanted it to become more representative of our all-India situation. And hence, the three stories that we selected, we could not just tell their stories. We have taken many incidents from other girls' lives and made them part of their stories. As a result, it's a story of three girls, but it also has a reflection of a lot of other stories in it."