The Kerala Story is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.[1] It stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. The plot follows the story of a group of women from Kerala who are converted to Islam and join the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The film is premised on the conspiracy theory of "love jihad",[5] and falsely claims that thousands of women from Kerala are being converted to Islam and recruited into ISIS.[6][7]
The work has been uniformly panned by reviewers who characterized it as propaganda.[8][9] The film was promoted and endorsed by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party which used it in its campaigning for the Karnataka assembly election. It has faced push-back with refusals by theatres for screening, several legal cases and protests, primarily in the southern states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. The Indian National Congress, and the Communist Party of India (Marxist) have also accused the filmmakers of defaming the state of Kerala and promoting the agenda of the Sangh Parivar.
It was theatrically released on 5 May 2023,[10] and has grossed over ₹93.37 crore (US$12 million) becoming the fifth-highest-grossing Hindi film of 2023.
Gaurav Kumar
