Amid protests by Left, ABVP organises special screening of 'The Kerala Story' at JNU

New Delhi: The controversial movie "The Kerala Story" was given a special screening on Tuesday at Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), despite objections from Left student organizations. The event was hosted by the student wing of the Bharatiya Janata Party, ABVP (Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad).

Several students turned up to watch the film at 4 pm in the main convention centre. The Kerala Story, written and directed by Sudipto Sen, will be released in theatres on May 5. 

Students Federation of India (SFI) activists protested against the screening on campus. They gathered next to the hostel Sabarmati and shouted slogans. According to the SFI, the film is a creation of the Sangh Parivar "lie factory."

“‘The Kerala Story’ is another attempt of the Sangh Parivar’s ‘lie factory’ to polarise society by propagating Islamophobia and outright lies such as the figure of ‘32,000’ women, who the film claims have joined the terror outfit ISIS through ‘love jihad’ in Kerala,” said Sagnik, SFI Secretary, JNU.

In the meantime, considering that the movie has already received the censor board's approval, the Supreme Court on Tuesday informed petitioners who reached it in opposition to the movie that they should have moved the right forum. The judge informed the counsel that it could not be included in the hate speech case and that it should have gone before the High Court.

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan slammed the producers, saying that the movie seems to spread misinformation to foment racial tension and hate speech against the state.

The trailer for Sudipto Sen's film 'The Kerala Story' was released on April 26th, 2023. The film is based on narratives of Hindu and Christian females in Kerala who were lured into love jihad by Islamists in Kerala before being transferred to Iraq and Syria to become ISIS fighters.

The film has Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani in the lead roles. 'The Kerala Story' is produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.

Initially, the film's creators asserted that 32,000 women from Kerala who went missing were radicalised and exploited by the Islamic State (IS) for terrorist actions. Both the government's CPM and the opposition's Congress denounced the film as Sangh Parivar's attempt to use the concept of "love jihad" to portray Kerala as a hub for terrorism. Both party leaders, including the chief minister, demanded that the film's release be prohibited.