"Producer of 'The Kerala Story' should be hanged": NCP leader Jitendra Awhad

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], May 9 (ANI): Amid the ongoing controversy over the movie 'The Kerala Story', Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) MLA Jitendra Awhad on Tuesday said that the producer of the movie should be hanged in public.

"Under the name of 'The Kerala Story', a state and its women were defamed. The official figure of three was projected as 32,000. The person who produced this fictional movie should be hanged in public," NCP leader Awhad said.

The movie has been produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.

Earlier in the day, filmmaker Ashoke Pandit condemned the ban of 'The Kerala Story' movie by the West Bengal government and called it a "big attack" on the freedom of expression.

This comes a day after the Trinamool Congress government in West Bengal banned the film 'The Kerala Story' citing "maintenance of peace" and to avoid incidents of "hatred and violence" in the state.

Reacting sharply to the ban of the film, Pandit who is also the president of the Indian Film and Television Directors' Association told ANI, "I condemn the banning of the film 'The Kerala Story' by the West Bengal government. It's a big attack on the freedom of expression of a filmmaker. It is sending the wrong signal to the entire country.

West Bengal became the first state to ban the film, which narrates the ordeal of three women who are trafficked to ISIS camps after being converted to Islam through marriage.

There's a continuing political outcry around the movie even as it has been made tax-free in BJP-ruled Madhya Pradesh and now Uttar Pradesh, becoming the second state to make the move.

On the decision to ban the film, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said, "It is to avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and maintain peace in the state."

'The Kerala Story' stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in lead roles.

A massive controversy erupted around the film after its trailer claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had gone missing and joined the terrorist group ISIS. However, in the face of protests, the contentious figure in the trailer was later withdrawn. (ANI)