West Bengal bans 'The Kerala Story'

The West Bengal government on Monday announced that the controversial movie 'The Kerala Story' is being banned in the state to avoid "any incident of hatred and violence", ANI reported.

"The West Bengal govt has decided to ban the movie 'The Kerala Story'. This is to avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and to maintain peace in the state," ANI quoted Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee in a tweet.

She mentioned about 'The Kashmir Files, a film on the alleged genocide of Kashmiri Pandits, and said, "What was 'The Kashmir Files'? It was meant purely to humiliate a particular section of society. What is 'The Kerala Story'? It is a distorted story."

However, the makers of the movie have said that they will approach the court if the state government bans 'The Kerala Story.'

"If that is what she has done, we will take legal action. Whatever is possible under the provisions of law, we will fight," producer Vipul Shah said.

It has to be noted that the screening of the movie was stopped in Tamil Nadu from Sunday.

M Subramaniam, President of Tamil Nadu Theatre and Multiplex Owners, confirmed the news that the few multiplexes that had shown the film had decided to withdraw it.

"The film was only shown in a few multiplexes owned by pan-India groups, mostly PVR. Locally-owned multiplexes had already decided not to show the film, as it did not have any popular stars. In Coimbatore for instance, there were two shows so far - one on Friday and one on Saturday. Even those did not do well. Given that, theatres decided that it was not worth going through the threat of protests and such," PTI quoted Subramaniam, popularly known as Tiruppur Subramaniam, as saying.

However, the Tamil Nadu BJP has come down heavily on the DMK government accusing it of taking the movie off the screens in a systematic fashion.

'The Kerala Story' has been severely criticised by politicians in Kerala accusing the flick of projecting Kerala and Muslims in a bad light. Also, the political leaders including Kerala CM Pinarayi Vijayan said that the film could create communal tension in the state while seeking a ban.

The story revolves around 3 women who are converted and then sold off as sex slaves to the Islamic State.

However, the courts including the Supreme Court have refused to ban or stay the release of the flick, which hit the screens on May 5.

On the other hand, 'The Kerala Story' has done excellent business at the box office in its first weekend. The movie was opened to a superb start on Friday by earning Rs 8.03 crore. The movie raked in Rs 11.22 crore and Rs 16 crore in the next two days to take its first-weekend collection to Rs 35.25 crore in India.

With inputs from agencies.