Kolkata: Days after the Supreme Court stayed the ban on The Kerala Story in West Bengal, the movie is still not running in most of the halls in the state. The hall owners find it 'difficult' to accommodate The Kerala Story as a new line-up of movies has already been booked for the coming days.
Speaking on the same, the Managing Director of Priya Entertainment told ANI, "This is a blockbuster movie but we are sorry as all slots are filled up for the next two weeks. It's not possible for us to cancel the booked slots to make a place for the new one. After two or three weeks, we can think about the screening of The Kerala Story."
Arijit Dutta also mentioned that The Kerala Story had a good run in the initial days before the ban was imposed. The Managing Director also said that he was 'hopeful' that the movie would run for '50 days' in halls in the state given a chance. After the Supreme Court stayed the ban on film in West Bengal, the State Government has still not issued any new circular.
After the ban was lifted, director Sudipto Sen said, "We are in constant touch with distributors from West Bengal. We are receiving calls from hall owners that they are receiving calls not to show the film." The director also firmly stated that once he got to know who are these people threatening the hall owners, then he would definitely reveal the names. He added that if he can take names of terrorists, then he can also name such people too in front of the media.
However, denying the political pressure, Durbadal Chatterjee a booking official at the Ashoka cinema (Behala) said, "We know that it's a blockbuster movie, in fact when the movie was released, we screened here for four days after that government banned the movie. At that time, all shows of this movie were booked. Now we can't do anything." Many of the hall representatives did not want to talk about the movie in front of the media.
Courtesy the political debate around the movie, many cinemagoers in Kolkata want to watch the movie. A cine goer told ANI, "I definitely want to watch this movie. Movies are fiction. If someone makes out of it, it's their issue." The Supreme Court stayed the ban imposed by the West Bengal government on the film The Kerala Story on May 18.
"Prohibition by West Bengal is not tenable. The order of the additional secretary of West Bengal shall remain stayed," Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said. The apex court also directed the makers of The Kerala Story to give a proper disclaimer regarding the unsubstantiated figure '32,000' mentioned in the film. Senior Adv Harish Salve, appearing for film producers, says that disclaimer -"there is no authentic data to back up the suggestion that the figure of conversions is 32,000 or any other established figure" and "the film represents the fictionalised version" of the issue- shall be added. (ANI)
