The makers of the controversial film ‘The Kerala Story’ (2023) organized a press conference in Mumbai, where producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah reacted to the criticism that the Adah Sharma-starrer shows Muslim community in a bad light.
Vipul Shah replied, “Main aapko ek simple baat kehta hoon. ‘Sholay’ (1975) mein Gabbar Singh villain hai. Does that mean director Ramesh Sippy is against the Singh community? Jab bhi koi film kuch bure logon ki baat karti hai, toh har waqt toh usse kisi religion se nahin jodte hai. (I’m telling you a simple thing. In ‘Sholey’, Gabbar Singh is the villain. Does that mean director Ramesh Sippy is against Singh community? Whenever any film exhibits a corrupt person, we don’t relate them with any religions). In ‘Singham Returns’ (2014), the villain was a priest. Does that mean the makers were trying to villainize the Hindu saints and the Hindu community?.”
He continued, “Of course not. That’s a character in that film. Similarly, in our film, certain characters are terrorists. When you didn’t raise these questions during the release of ‘Sholay’ and ‘Singham Returns’, then why now? Why can’t we say that ‘this film is against terrorism…let’s applaud it’? Instead, we are trying to hint that ‘yeh film toh kisi taraf ishara kar rahi hai’ (this film is giving some signal).”
Shah further added, “While making the film, we took extreme care that we don’t demonize any religion and community. We are also against the perpetrators and that’s what we have highlighted. This film is about these girls whose lives were destroyed. The rest is our ways of disagreeing, which is most welcome. It’s a democracy. Everybody has the right to disagree. But kisi aur film mein aapne yeh sawaal uthaya? Har film ka villain kisi na kisi religion se belong karta hai. (Did you ever point out other films? Every villain belongs to a religion).
In a recent development, the Supreme Court lifted the ban on ‘The Kerala Story’ in West Bengal and ordered the makers to include a disclaimer in the movie stating that there is no real evidence to support the claim that 32000 people have been converted to Islam forcefully and that the movie depicts a fictionalized version of the subject matter.
