Director Sudipto Sen on controveries surrounding The Kerala Story: If I don’t say what you want to hear, then I become a propagandist – Exclusive | Hindi Movie News

Director Sudipto Sen is keeping his cool and hoping that the rabble rousers will be left pink faced once his film The Kerala Story releases in theatres in a few days. He doesn’t want to engage with those labelling his film as propoganda and alleging it speaks of Love Jihad. While speaking to ETimes he assures that his film is simply telling the story of girls who were victima of trafficking and terrorism. He also reveals that he is surprised that the authorities of a progressive state like Kerala are objecting to his film.
Explaining his disappointment, Sen says, “I never expected Kerala to be such an intolerant state. Kerala is educated and has the highest literacy rate in India. Kerala has a very progressive society. Kerala always leads the country in various human indexes. But, they haven’t seen the film. They don’t know what is there in the film. If they’re asking for a ban, then there’s nothing more ridiculous than that.”
Sen assures his film is not political, it is infact a socially relevant story. He says, “Shashi Tharoor is a respectable politician of our country. We are not getting into their territory. I don’t understand politics. I understand cinema. I understand human suffering. I did my research. I got my film to Vipul sir (producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah). He liked the story. He was in tears. Then we decided to make the film and it’s been a long seven-year journey after which we finally managed to complete the film. Now, if I have to go respond to political comments, I have nothing to say.” Adressing the political parties directly, Sen says, “They are professional politicians. I don’t know what is their intention. The only thing that I can tell them as a filmmaker is that “please watch our film”.”

He further explains by stating that making a film with an agenda goes against the very nature of the commerce of filmmaking. Sen says, “Why would we make a propaganda film? If the film gets banned then our hard-earned money goes for a toss. Will any businessman do that? No one of the people objecting to The Kerala Story know what is there in the film. We are telling the story of three girls. One girl is right now in Afghanistan jail. One girl committed suicide and her parents are still waiting for justice. One girl has been raped repeatedly and now she’s in hibernation because her perpetrators are hounding her. My film is nothing more or nothing less.”
Sen assures that the concept of trafficking of girls is not an India-centric subject. He says, “It’s everywhere in the world that girls are being trafficked to countries such as Syria, Iraq, Yemen and Turkey. India is part of that and if girls are being trafficked, it is an act of terrorism. When we are making a film against active terrorism then why do people have a problem? Terrorists don’t have a religion. If I have to speak against terrorism then why do people have a problem? Those raising objections attached a particular religion when we didn’t do it.”
“Why don’t you send your journalists to the northern districts of Kerala – Kasaragod, Malappuram, Kozhikode?”, he says with angst. He further reveals, “People there have told us that the number of girls being converted and eloped are more than 50,000. I never said that they joined ISIS, neither in my film nor in my communication. The pattern is that once the girls are manipulated and converted, they leave their homes and just vanish.”
Composing himself, Sen adds, “The point that I’m trying to make here is that it is convenient listening. If I don’t say what you want to hear then I become a propagandist. It will better to just watch the film. It is three days away from release. The CBFC has given it an ‘A’ certificate with some cuts because we shot extensively in the ISIS areas so that footage was there. The film has been shot in Kerala, Ladakh, Mumbai and other places.”