‘The Kerala Story’: Supreme Court stays West Bengal ban but asks filmmakers to add disclaimer

The Supreme Court on Thursday stayed a West Bengal government order banning The Kerala Story, saying that the decision “prima facie suffers from overbreadth”, Live Law reported.

The film, directed by Sudipto Sen, was released on May 5. It claims to depict how women from Kerala were converted to Islam and recruited by the Islamic State terrorist group. The filmmakers initially claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had joined the Islamic State, but when asked for evidence, they altered the trailer to state that the movie was a “compilation of the true stories of three young girls”.

The West Bengal government banned the movie after three days of screening in theatres.

At Thursday’s hearing, a bench headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and comprising Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said that the movie has been approved by the Central Board of Film Certification.

“Bad films bomb at the box office,” the court said, according to PTI. “The legal provision cannot be used to put a premium on public intolerance. Otherwise, all films will find themselves in this spot.”

The court, however, directed the filmmakers to ensure that the movie carries a disclaimer clearly mentioning that it is a fictionalised account of events and that there is no data to support claims that 32,000 women in Kerala were forced to...

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