'The Kerala Story' may trigger protests in Tamil Nadu, warn intelligence agencies

The intelligence bureau has warned the Tamil Nadu police that if the film is released in Tamil Nadu, there may be many protests. The security agencies are now consulting whether to increase the security around theaters where the film will be released or not release the movie in the southern state.

Chennai: Amid the controversy surrounding the upcoming movie 'The Kerala Story', intelligence agencies in Tamil Nadu have warned that the release of the film could lead to protests and law and order issues in the state. 'The Kerala Story' is slated to release nationwide in Malayalam, Tamil, Telugu, and Hindi languages on May 5.

The intelligence bureau has warned the Tamil Nadu police that if the film is released in Tamil Nadu, there may be many protests. The security agencies are now consulting whether to increase the security around theaters where the film will be released or not release the movie in the southern state.

The trailer of 'The Kerala Story', directed by Sudipto Sen and starring Adah Sharma, Siddhi Itnani, and others, was released on April 26 and created a lot of controversy. The film ran into controversy after its trailer claimed 32,000 women from the state of Kerala had joined ISIS. The CPM-led LDF and the opposition UDF demanded a ban on its screening, while the Indian Union Muslim League, the Muslim Youth League, announced a reward of Rs 1 crore to anyone showing up with evidence of 32,000 girls converting to Islamic State members.

Following the controversy, its makers changed the trailer description on Tuesday from "Heartbreaking and gut-wrenching stories of 32000 females in Kerala!" to "a compilation of the true stories of three young girls from different parts of Kerala... Thousands of Innocent women have been systematically converted, radicalized and their lives destroyed..."

Chief Minister of Kerala Pinarayi Vijayan has registered a strong protest saying that the trailer of this film was designed to incite separatism in the state of Kerala, which is a secular state, and that 'The Kerala Story' was a film made to propagate the Sangh Parivar's policy. Kerala movie theater owners, meanwhile, said that there was no point in banning the film in theaters as it will be released on OTT on the announced date anyway.