The Tamil Nadu government has told the Supreme Court that theatre owners in the state voluntarily stopped screening the controversial movie, 'The Kerala Story', due to poor performances of actors.
The state government on Monday filed its reply to a petition filed by filmmakers claiming a shadow ban on the film in Tamil Nadu, said Bar & Bench.
The film directed by Sudipto Sen tells a fictional story of a group of Kerala women who converted to Islam and joined the terrorist group, Islamic State in Syria.
As per the affidavit, the film was released in 19 multiplexes in Tamil Nadu on its release date of May 5.
But the screening was stopped after two days 'due to poor performance of actors/poor response to the movie or lack of well-known actors in the movie', the state government said in the apex court.
The film was heavily criticised months before release for claiming in its teaser that 32,000 Kerala women joined the IS.
Following severe backlash from opposition parties and prominent personalities, the makers trimmed down the number to 3 from 32,000.
