PremiumFTII students protest the 'vile propaganda' of The Kerala Story as it is screened on their campus
Director Sudipto Sen and producer Vipul Shah were present at the special screening of Adah Sharma's film in Pune, which has courted controversy yet again
Last Updated: 05.01 PM, May 20, 2023
Adah Sharma's latest release, The Kerala Story, has been mired in controversy ever since it released in theatres on May 5.
Read also: The Kerala Story vs 2018: Which is the real Kerala story? Movie buffs get into comparison mode
There have been several protests against the film, and it has even been banned in two states: West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.
Despite all this, the film has been doing well in theatres, and as of today, it has raked in Rs 175 crore.
A special screening of the film was held earlier today at the prestigious Film and Television Institute of India (FTII) in Pune.
Organised by the MITEE Film Society, the screening was held amid heavy police presence. Deputy Commissioner of Police Sandip Singh Gill even visited the campus to oversee the arrangements.
Slated to begin at 9.30 am, the screening was delayed by over an hour due to some technical issues.
Pune’s Guardian Minister and BJP leader Chandrakant Patil was expected to be present at the screening, but he did not turn up.
Present at the event were The Kerala Story director Sudipto Sen and producer Vipul Shah, who interacted with the audience.
All was not well at the screening, as the FTII's student association, the FTIISA (FTII Students' Association), protested outside the screening venue, beating drums and raising slogans against the event.
The student body was protesting against the "vile propaganda" of the film and the fact that the institute did not inform them of the event or ask them to be part of the proceedings.
A statement released by the FTIISA read, "We believe it is our student community’s duty to denounce the vile propaganda that this film aims to unfurl."
It further read, "Not only are these stories false and present a wrong picture about the state of affairs that they claimed to have done research on, but they also add fuel to the ongoing misguided and prejudiced debates about Muslim men forcefully converting women to Islam."
"In addition to the violence and disenfranchisement, any such work that adds to the oppression of communities that are already threatened in our country needs to be met with defiance, and that is where the student community of FTII stands," added the statement.