'The Kerala Story' has run into a big controversy
A hoarding insinuating that opposition leaders Rahul Gandhi and Akhilesh Yadav were taking directions from "terrorists" to seek a ban on the controversial film 'The Kerala Story' came up near Lucknow University here on Wednesday.
The poster first appeared on the Twitter handle of Uttar Pradesh BJP secretary Abhijat Mishra on Tuesday. It also showed West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and All India Majlis-E-Ittehadul Muslimeen (AIMIM) chief Asaduddin Owaisi on a call with the "masked man".
The illustration showed these leaders being told to get the movie banned by "any means" and they responding to the instruction via speech bubbles.
The hoarding also bears Mishra's name and designation at the bottom.
In his tweet, Mishra said, "Wake up India wake up. #Kerala_story. Those who conceptualised Ghazwa-e-Hind are getting exposed. The intention of those opposing the film is that the daughters of the country remain unsafe".
The BJP leader also hosted a screening of the film for college girls at a theatre recently.
State BJP leader and former deputy chief minister Dinesh Sharma also hit out at the West Bengal government for banning the movie and said, "The ban on Kerala Story by opposition parties is sad and a conspiracy to hide the truth. The opposition parties are not worried about the country." The BJP has supported the movie on women being forcefully converted to Islam and recruited by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), while opposition parties have accused the filmmakers of peddling hate.
The motion picture has been banned in West Bengal and multiplexes in Tamil Nadu have halted its screening, whereas BJP-ruled states like Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have announced it as tax-free.
Directed by Sudipto Sen, the film depicts how women from Kerala were forced to convert to Islam and recruited by the terror group Islamic State(IS).
The movie was initially portrayed as "unearthing" the events behind "approximately 32,000 women" allegedly missing from Kerala. This was subsequently changed to three. It is produced by Shah's Sunshine Pictures.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)