Amid opposition from various corners to prevent the theatrical release of 'The Kerala Story', the Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK) has maintained that people will watch the film on OTT, even if they ban it in theatres.
According to Suresh Shenoy, owner of Shenoy's theatre complex in Kochi and an FEUOK office bearer, there was no point in banning the film from theatres since people would watch in on OTT platforms. He also stated that it was not a good precedent to seek a ban on films as this is like censorship.
'The Kerala Story' directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah is touted as the story of thousands of Kerala girls, mostly Hindus, who were brainwashed, converted, recruited into IS and taken to places like Afghanistan and Syria where the terror organisation claims to be waging a holy war.
Those who oppose the movie say that the film makes an unverified and hugely dubious claim that over 32,000 Malayali girls were recruited into IS.
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has come out strongly against the yet-to-be-released Hindi film, calling it a Sangh Parivar propaganda movie made to create communal divide and demonise Kerala. Opposition leader V D Satheesan has also opposed the movies for its alleged Sangh agenda.
