"Vindicated By None Other Than PM": 'The Kerala Story' Producer

"The Kerala Story" producer Vipul Shah on Friday said they are happy that none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi has vindicated their stand that the film is against terrorism and not any community.

In a rally in Karnataka's Ballari, the PM referenced the film in his speech and said, it "is under discussion these days; it is said the film reveals terror conspiracies in that state." Vipul Shah, who has produced the film and also serves as a creative director, said he is elated that the Kerala High Court refused to stay the film's release on Friday.

"What more can we ask on a day when first in the morning, the Kerala High Court gives such a lovely judgment and none other than the honorable Prime Minister talks about our film and he highlights the issue that we are trying to highlight through the film."

"We have been saying this is a film against terror, terrorism, it is not against any community, religion and that stand is vindicated by none other than the honorable Prime Minister," Mr Shah told PTI.

The filmmaker said the court's order is an "answer to everybody who was trying to target us" and tell us that "we have made this film under some kind of agenda".

The High Court refused to stay the release of the film and said the trailer does not contain anything offensive to any particular community as a whole.

A bench of Justices N Nagaresh and Sophy Thomas noted the submission made by the producers stating that they do not intend to retain an "offending teaser" which contained a statement that "32,000 women" from Kerala were converted and joined a terrorist organisation.

The Kerala High Court also noted that the producers have published a disclaimer along with the movie which specifically says that the film is a dramatised version of events and doesn't claim accuracy or factuality of historic events. "The Kerala Story" is getting a good response from the audience, claimed Mr Shah.

"Today, the film opened to an unprecedented record-breaking collection and the trend is only becoming bigger by the passing hour. So, we are not able to predict where it will stop and where the number will be on day one. The nation is supporting the film, the nation is supporting the cause that we were trying to raise," he said.

'The Kerala Story' starring Adah Sharma was released in cinemas on Friday and was initially portrayed as "unearthing" the events behind "approximately 32,000 women" allegedly going missing from Kerala.

According to the CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala, the film falsely claims that 32,000 women got converted and radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)