‘If there’s porotta and beef, no one needs forcing’: Viji Venkatesh’s witty take on The Kerala Story 2 row

Controversy continues to swirl around The Kerala Story 2, especially over a scene that suggests Hindu women in Kerala are forced to eat beef. The depiction quickly triggered a wave of memes online, with many Malayalis pushing back and joking that no one here needs to be “forced” to eat beef.

Now, actor Viji Venkatesh, known for her role in Pachuvum Athbutha Vilakkum, has joined the conversation with a tongue-in-cheek response. Taking to Facebook, she shared a photo of a classic Kerala spread — puttu, beef, egg curry and tea — and wrote that she had been laughing endlessly at the viral reels about The Kerala Story 2. She quipped that if porotta and beef were offered together, no one would need to be force-fed at all, before joking that she was off to watch more such videos.

The upcoming sequel to The Kerala Story, which sparked widespread debate upon its release in 2023, appears to broaden its canvas beyond Kerala. The trailer follows three ambitious Hindu women from different states whose lives take a drastic turn after they fall in love, convert to Islam and are allegedly deceived by their husbands. Their shattered aspirations form the emotional core of the narrative, echoing the themes of the first film while shifting from a state-specific focus to a larger national setting. The film is scheduled to hit theatres on February 27.