The Kerala Story: The controversial movie about '32,000' women being converted and forced to join Islamic State

From calls for a ban to FIR against the movie, filmmaker Sudipto Sen’s The Kerala Story has stirred up a hornet’s nest. The teaser of the movie claims that as many as 32,000 women from Kerala were “converted” to Islam and forced to join the terror organisation Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS).

The teaser has evoked sharp reactions, with many rubbishing the figure, calling out the movie for spreading “misinformation”, and saying that it aims to “defame” the southern state.

What does the teaser of The Kerala Story portray? How has the controversy snowballed into a political row? Is the 32,000 figure claimed by the movie correct? How have the makers responded to the row? We take a closer look.

The Kerala Story teaser

In the one-minute-19-second long teaser, a burkha-clad woman, played by Bollywood actor Adah Sharma, says her name was Shalini Unnikrishnan and she wanted to serve humanity by becoming a nurse.

“Now I am Fatima Ba, an ISIS terrorist in Afghanistan jail,” she says, adding that there are “32,000 girls like me who have been converted and buried in the deserts of Syria and Yemen”.

“A deadly game is being played to convert normal girls into dreaded terrorists in Kerala and that too in the open,” she further adds.

The Kerala Story teaser triggers row

The movie, produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, has been making headlines since the teaser was released.

Congress member and Leader of Opposition in Kerala Assembly VD Satheesan has called for a ban on the movie. He said it is a “clear case of misinformation” and the movie is trying to “tarnish the image of Kerala”.

“I have seen that teaser. It’s a clear case of misinformation. There is nothing like that happening in Kerala. This is to tarnish the image of Kerala in front of other states. This is spreading hatred, so it should be banned. In normal scenarios, we are against banning films, but these types of misinformation will lead to communal issues,” he was quoted as saying by India Today.

“There is no record with state police. If there is anything with central intelligence, they have to bring the public. These are the records, these are the list of women, these are the addresses of the women who joined IS, they were recruited from Kerala,” the Congress leader added.

On Wednesday (9 November), Rajya Sabha member and CPM leader John Brittas wrote to Union home minister Amit Shah, asking him to take action against the makers of The Kerala Story as it “severely threatens harmony, secularism and national unity apart from defaming Kerala.”

“The teaser claims to be depicting the story of 32,000 women from Kerala who are radicalised to join ISIS terrorist group, which is absolutely rubbish and fallacious,” he wrote.

Expressing concern, he said the teaser “may topple down the public tranquillity and the secular fabric of the Nation and intended to defame Kerala.”

“Such dissemination of grossly false information may lead to inconceivable repercussions and unrest in society and the same will amount to defaming the state as well,” Brittas warned.

Journalist seeks inquiry, DGP orders FIR

On 4 November, Tamil Nadu-based journalist Arvindakshan BR shot off a letter to Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan, Central Board of Film Certification, state film certification and others seeking a ban on the film.

Further, he also sent a complaint to the Union information and broadcasting minister Anurag Thakur to ascertain the veracity of the content.

“Some cases may have happened but 32,000 is an unbelievable number,’’ the journalist told BBC.

Slamming the movie he said it is “against the unity and sovereignty of India and tarnishes the credibility of all intelligence agencies of India”.

On Tuesday, Kerala director general of police (DGP) Anil Kant directed Thiruvananthapuram police commissioner Sparjan Kumar to file a case against the movie.

His order was based on the basis of the journalist’s complaint sent to the Kerala chief minister who in turn forwarded it to the DGP.

A senior police officer told Hindustan Times that a case was registered under Sections 153 A &B (promoting disharmony and enmity between different groups based on the ground of faith) and other sections of the Indian penal code (IPC).

BJP questions FIR

Talking about the case against the film, BJP’s national head of information and technology Amit Malviya asked who are those who do not want the “truth” revealed.

He wrote on Twitter, “The Kerala Story movie’s teaser has run into rough weather with powerful forces trying to scuttle the movie. A formal complaint has been filed with Kerala police to check the veracity of the claims made in the trailer. Who are these people who don’t want the truth to come out?”

Kerala BJP vice president KS Radhakrishnan told news agency ANI that registering an FIR against the makers of The Kerala Story is “idiotic”.

“The question that arises is whether the film is a work of art or a historical document. If you think it is a work of art, then freedom should be given to the artist to express his experience in an aesthetic manner,” he was quoted as saying by the news agency.

Hitting out at the Kerala Police over the FIR, Radhakrishnan added, “There are cases of women who have been deported to Syria and have been recruited to IS. These are the facts. So the action of the DGP to file an FIR against the teaser is absolutely ‘idiotic’. We cannot say anything more than that”.

The saffron party leader also suggested the state DGP and Chief Minister launch a judicial inquiry regarding the “number of women who have been deported from Kerala to Syria and recruited to IS to ascertain the exact number”.

As per BBC, slamming the state government for filing a case against the makers of the film, BJP’s K Surendran said the chief minister “should have the guts to act against the IS recruiters in Kerala”.

Is the 32,000 figure correct?

Sudipto Sen told fact-checking news website Alt News over the phone that he has documents to back the claims made in the teaser.

“This figure (32,000) is not mine. It was a piece of news in The Times of India… one thing I can tell you is that Oommen Chandy, the (then) chief minister of Kerala, had placed this number in the state assembly. So this is not my number, I have got all the documents with me,” he was quoted as saying by Alt News.

However, the fact-checking site said it “could not find any report by any media outlet which said that 32,000 women from Kerala had joined ISIS”.

As per India Today report published in September 2012, the then Kerala chief minister Oommen Chandy informed the state legislature that “2,667 young women were converted to Islam in the state since 2006”. He did not reveal an annual figure.

Moreover, the report does not mention anything about women joining ISIS.

A group of 21 people from Kerala had left India in 2016 in batches to join an affiliate of the Islamic State jihadist militant group, reports BBC.

After the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan in 2021, Indian officers had said four women from Kerala who had joined the Islamic State were lodged in jail there.

“One needs to check the records but our estimate is that there are not more than 10-15 women who have got converted and left to join the IS from Kerala since 2016,” a police official told the BBC.

Citing the United States Department of State’s Country Reports on Terrorism 2020, Alt News reported that there were “66 known Indian-origin fighters affiliated with ISIS as of November 2020”.

What did the director say?

After Alt News shared India Today article with Sen and asked him about the Times of India story, he told the fact-checking website, “Let the intolerance reach a crescendo. I’ll share my data after the film is released. Why should I defeat the cause of my film?”

With inputs from agencies

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