In response to a petition filed by the filmmakers, the state government of Tamil Nadu has claimed that there was no ban on The Kerala Story. The cinema owners pulled down the film when it did not bring moolah for them, the state added.
Filed by director and producers of the Hindi film, the petition claimed the state government had issued an “alert” about the possibility of protests around the release of The Kerala Story. The theatres withdrew the film because of the alert, the petition claimed, calling it a shadow ban.
The State filed its response in an affidavit before the Supreme Court. “The theatre owners had voluntarily stopped screening the film on May 7th onwards due to poor performance of actors/ poor response to the movie or lack of well-known actors in the movie.”
“These false statements have been made deliberately to seek the undue indulgence of this court under Article 32 petition.”
Meanwhile, the West Bengal government defended its ban on the film. It said in a submission to the court: “The said movie is based on manipulated facts and contains hate speech in multiple scenes that may hurt communal sentiments and cause disharmony between the communities which will eventually lead to a law and order situation, as has been been gauged from various Intelligence inputs.”
During surveillance, it has been observed that the audience makes very objectionable comments whenever they see a particular scene where Hindu or Chri