CBFC gives The Kerala Story ’A certificate’, removes 10 scenes

Mangalore Today News Network

New Delhi, May 02, 2023: Director Sudipto Sen’s Hindi movie, The Kerala Story, has been in the news ever since the teaser was launched last year. The movie, which will be released on May 5, has been issued an ’A certificate’ by the Censor Board.

 The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) reportedly deleted 10 scenes, one of them an interview with a former Kerala chief minister. The Kerala CM is said to be VS Achuthanandan.

OTHER DELETED SCENES

Another scene which is believed to have been deleted reportedly had "dialogues and inappropriate references to all Hindu Gods". Some dialogues were also apparently tweaked. A dialogue purportedly stated "Indian Communists are biggest hypocrites" and the word Indian is said to have been deleted from this.

There was a TV interview with a former Kerala CM where he stated that Kerala over the next two decades would become a Muslim-majority state as youngsters were being influenced to convert to Islam. The CBFC ordered that this entire TV interview be deleted from the film.

CONTROVERSY

The Kerala Story sparked a controversy when the teaser (released in November 2022), featuring a character named Shalini Unnikrishnan aka Fatima Ba, stated that 32,000 women were recruited by the Islamic State (IS) terror group in Kerala and she was one of them.

Currently, the Kerala government and the opposition leaders have demanded the film be banned in the state. The CPM and the Congress did not want the Hindi film to be released there, but film exhibitors shared a different opinion. Film exhibitors stated that the audience would eventually watch the film on OTT, so it is better to release it in theatres.

The Muslim Youth League in Kerala has announced a Rs 1 crore reward for anyone who proves that 32,000 Malayali women were, in fact, radicalised by IS.

Courtesy: India Today