HC reserves verdict on appeal against stay on release of The Kerala Story 2

A few hours after a Single Judge of the Kerala High Court passed an interim order staying the release of the Hindi film ‘The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond’, a Division Bench of the court that heard a writ appeal filed by the film-makers reserved its judgment on the matter.

The court was hearing pleas challenging the grant of censor certificate to the film, and the alleged wrong portrayal of Kerala in the teaser and trailer of the film that was scheduled for release on Friday.

The hearing followed a writ appeal filed by the filmmakers. During the course of the hearing, the Division Bench asked how the court can decide the case without viewing the film whose teaser and trailer allegedly have content derogatory to Kerala. (The single judge had sought to see the film, which the filmmakers allegedly remained non-committal about) The court also sought a clarification whether the pleas were normal writ petitions or PILs.

Referring to the interim order that stayed the film’s release for a fortnight, which spoke of the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) alleged non-application of mind while issuing the censor certificate, the filmmakers contented that the certificate was issued after an expert committee, which included two social activists from Kerala, viewed the contents. Moreover, the storyline and the choice of religion being shown in the film were the prerogative of the storyteller. The film portrays a social evil attributed to a section of a particular religion in many States, and it was the State’s responsibility to ensure law and order when the movie is released, they said.

Moreover, the film, for which huge sums had been spent, was set to be released in 1,500 theatres in India and in over 100 theatres abroad on Friday. The plea for a stay on its release was filed at the eleventh hour, it said, adding that there was no need to remove Kerala from the title, since the State’s name was mentioned in the first movie The Kerala Story as well. The women in the movie are fighting against radicalisation and there in no intention to portray Kerala in bad light, the film-makers said.

One of the petitioners, who hails from Kannur, said his right to reputation stood to be affected by the contents of the movie. He risked being discriminated against, just because he hailed from Kerala, since the entire State was being shown in bad light in the film.

“There are hundreds of of similarly affected people, especially those who are settled outside Kerala. It is constitutionally impermissible to denigrate any community,” he said, adding that releasing the movie would cause irreparable damage to Kerala’s name. He added that the claim in The Kerala Story that 32,000 Kerala women were radicalised, turned out to be false.