- By Simran Srivastav
- Mon, 08 May 2023 07:45 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Sudipto Sen's 'The Kerala Story' has finally hit the theatres and the movie was surrounded by several controversies. Despite the controversies and clashing with other big films, the movie has been performing well at the box office.
The Kerala Story Box Office Collection:
According to the website sacnilk, The Kerala Story has collected around Rs 16.60 crore approximately in Day 3 and its total box office collection stands at Rs 35.75 crore approximately. On Day 1, it collected Rs 8.03 crore and the box office numbers increased on Day 2 with the collection of Rs 11.22 crore.
'The Kerala Story' sparked controversy after the trailer claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala were forcibly converted and allegedly recruited into ISIS. Later, The Supreme Court declined the petition to halt the release of the film, citing the need to challenge certification through the appropriate forum.
The Supreme Court pointed out that 'The Kerala Story' has already been cleared by the censor board and the petitioners should instead challenge the film’s certification before the appropriate authority. A bench of justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna said that the plea to stay the release of the movie cannot be clubbed with the other instances of hate speech since the exhibition of films entails a different process.
Earlier, Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan said in a Facebook post that the movie was 'deliberately produced with the aim of communal polarisation and spreading hate propaganda against Kerala'.
"By placing Kerala, the land of secularism, as the centre of religious extremism, it is repeating the Sangh Parivar’s propaganda. Propaganda films and the othering of Muslims should be viewed in the context of various efforts made by the Sangh Parivar to gain an advantage in electoral politics in Kerala," he added.
'The Kerala Story' stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. The movie was released on May 5, 2023. The movie claims to follow the story of a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and join the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).