Director of the controversial The Kerala Story, Sudipto Sen said the first four days after the film released, there was no violence or a law and order situation in any state or city, including Kolkata, before the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government banned it.
In an exclusive interaction with News18, Sen said there were 15 petitions filed against the film while the film’s team had filed a redressal petition before the Supreme Court, and Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud will be hearing it. The Kerala Story has triggered a controversy over its content as it depicts the radicalisation of women from Kerala by ISIS. West Bengal banned the movie citing “threat to communal harmony”.
“The movie has been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC). It is a statutory film certification body in the ministry of information and broadcasting of the Government of India. Once a film gets clearance from the CBFC, it cannot be banned,” Sen told News18.
He added: “The letter issued to us and the ban order by Mamata Banerjee’s government are illegal in nature. Some political parties moved courts seeking a ban on its release, but these pleas were entertained. Out of a total 15 petitions against the movie, 11 were filed before the Kerala High Court alone. We have not violated any rule. If there is a law and order problem, it is the responsibility of the state to handle it. If they cannot do that, it is their responsibility and not the film’s fault.”
Genesis of ‘The Kerala Story’
Sen is a Bengali from a Leftist family, who met two senior RSS functionaries in Delhi eight years ago in 2015. During this period of 2015 to 2016, Kerala was witnessing arrests in connection with ISIS. Hence, Sen met RSS members who told him about the “radicalisation” in Kerala.
A senior RSS functionary told News 18 that Sen visited Aarsha Vidya Samajan, an RSS-backed NGO in Kerala, which rescued some of the women who converted to Islam and got them to return to their own religion. Sen interviewed these women, who narrated their stories to him. Based on their accounts, he began his research and went through NIA files, court judgements and speeches of politicians.
“After rigorous research, he decided to make the movie and it was then that he approached Vipul Shah for production. We felt that the stories of such instances in Kerala need to be told. People should see and judge. There is no made up story, the movie is based on accounts of the victims and their narration,” the RSS member said, adding that Aarsha Vidya Samajan still had at least 40 women who were “reconverted” to ‘Sanatan’ and were running the organisation.
Sen’s 2018 documentary, In Name of Love, also triggered controversy. The documentary was about conversions and was screened at Jawaharlal Nehru University. “Crew members and our people who supported the documentary were brutally assaulted at the university campus. But he (Sen) is brave enough to continue with the work,” said the RSS functionary.
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