 "The Kerala Story gets 'A' certificate from censor board, 10 scenes deleted")
The Kerala Story, the controversial Hindi film, which is set to be released on May 5, has been given the 'A' certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), according to an India Today report.
Besides this, 10 scenes, including an entire interview of a former Kerala chief minister, said to be of V S Achuthanandan, have been deleted from the release print.
Another scene believed to have been cut included "dialogues and inappropriate references to all Hindu Gods". Some dialogues were also reported to be tweaked.
A scene where a dialogue purportedly stating "Indian Communists are biggest hypocrites" have also been removed from the movie.
According to the report, a former Kerala CM claimed in a TV interview that the state would become a Muslim-majority in the next two decades as youngsters were being influenced to convert to Islam. The censor board mandated that this entire interview be deleted from the film.
Who can watch 'A' certificate movies?
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A-rated films are available for public viewing, but only to adults (aged 18 and above).
These films may contain violence, explicit sexual scenes, strong abusive language, but not words that insult or degrade women or any social group and nudity are not allowed.
The Kerala Story controversy
Directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, The Kerala Story stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani, and Sonia Balani in the lead roles.
The trailer of 'The Kerala Story' came under fire as it claimed that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group, Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).
The movie has also kicked up a political storm in the country, with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI (M)] and the Congress criticising the makers of the movie and saying they were taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the bogey of 'love jihad'.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has also accused the Sangh Parivar of trying to destroy religious harmony in the state by “sowing the poisonous seeds of communalism”.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), on the other hand, called the stand of the Kerala CM and ruling CPI(M) “double standards."
As the BJP came out in support of the controversial film, Congress's Thiruvananthapuram MP Shashi Tharoor said the citizens of Kerala have the right to say loud and clear that the movie is a "misrepresentation of our reality".
"Let me stress, I am not calling for a ban on the film. Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused. But Keralites have every right to say loud & clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality," Tharoor tweeted.
Meanwhile, representatives of the Film Exhibitors United Organisation of Kerala (FEUOK) said that banning a film is futile since viewers can still watch it on OTT platforms.
Suresh Shenoy, an office bearer of FEUOK and a theatre complex owner in Kochi, told news channel Onmanorama that such a move sets a bad precedent and amounts to censorship.
The Kerala State Committee of Muslim Youth League on Monday announced a reward of Rs 1 crore for the individual who proves the “allegations” levelled in the movie that 32,000 girls were converted to Islam through 'love jihad' and taken to Syria.
"Prove the allegations that 32,000 Keralites converted and fled to Syria. Take up the challenge and submit the evidence," the committee was quoted as saying by news agency ANI.
On the other hand, founder of the Hindu Seva Kendra Pratheesh Viswanath has also offered Rs 10 crore to prove that ''no one from Kerala has gone to Syria to join IS."