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

A few hours after the Single Judge of the Kerala High Court passed an interim order to stay the screening of the Hindi film‘Kerala Story 2: Going Beyond’, The Division Bench of the court, which heard the written objection filed by the filmmakers, reserved its decision on the matter.

The court was hearing objections regarding the granting of a censorship certificate to the film., and the allegation that Kerala was portrayed incorrectly in the teaser and trailer of the film, which is scheduled to be released on Friday.

The hearing took place after the filmmakers filed an objection petition. During the hearing, the Division Bench asked how the court could decide the case without watching the film, whose teaser and trailer allegedly had content derogatory to Kerala. (The single judge had asked to see the film, which he claimed the filmmakers had not committed to in this regard.) The court also sought clarification on whether the pleas were regular writ petitions or PILs.

Referring to the interim order that halted the release of the film for two weeks and alleged lack of wisdom in granting the censorship certificate by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), the filmmakers said that the certificate was issued after an expert committee, including two social activists from Kerala, viewed the content. Moreover, the choice of story and religion shown in the film was the prerogative of the storyteller. The film depicts the social evil attributed to a section of a particular religion in many states and when the film was released they said it was the responsibility of the state to maintain law and order.

Moreover, the film, for which huge amounts have been spent, will be released on Friday in 1,500 cinemas in India and over 100 cinemas abroad. Stating that the request to stop its broadcast was made at the eleventh hour, the organization added that there was no need to remove Kerala from the title as the name of the state was mentioned in the first movie. Kerala Story additionally. The makers said that the women in the film fight against radicalization and that they did not intend to portray Kerala in a bad light.

One of the petitioners from Kannur said that his right to reputation was affected by the content of the film. She was at risk of being discriminated against just because she came from Kerala, as the entire state was shown in bad light in the film.

“There are hundreds of people similarly affected, especially those living outside Kerala. It is constitutionally unacceptable to denigrate any community,” he said, adding that the release of the film would cause irreparable damage to Kerala’s name. He added that the claim was as follows: Kerala Story The claim that 32,000 Kerala women were radicalized turned out to be a lie.