Mumbai, Aug 5 (IANS) Filmmaker Sudipto Sen’s 2023 release, “The Kerala Story” has been awarded not one but two National Awards- Best Direction (Sudipto Sen) and Best Cinematography (Prasantanu Mohapatra).
While interacting exclusively with IANS, Sen recounted the challenges he faced while filming the scenes of “The Kerala Story” in Kerala and Ladakh.
Speaking to IANS, he said that they shot the indoor sequences for the movie in Bombay, which was not that difficult. However, they faced difficulties while shooting in Kerala as they were doing a kind of guerrilla shooting, because they did not get permission to shoot on the roads and in the villages.
“So, it was a kind of guerrilla shooting we did for seven days – it was very difficult,” the director recalled.
Talking about the film’s Ladakh schedule, Sen shared, “Shooting was done in Ladakh at higher altitudes in Karakoram where the temperature used to drop to – 15 degrees, and the landscape was extremely windy- so, it became very difficult to keep things calm and settled.
“We were exposed to many difficult situations- particularly in Ladakh. However, we knew we had to do the best cinematography to tell the story”, Sen revealed.
Released on May 5, 2023, “The Kerala Story” is believed to be based on the 2016 Hadiya Case, claiming that thousands of Hindu women from Kerala have been converted to Islam and recruited in the Islamic State.
After the trailer of the film reached the viewers, petitions were filed in the Supreme Court seeking to ban the film, citing it as “audio-visual propaganda.” However, the Supreme Court declined to intervene, saying that the film had been certified for release.
Not just that, “The Kerala Story” also faced several protests, especially in Kerala, West Bengal, and Tamil Nadu.
Additionally, Kerala Chief Minister, Pinarayi Vijayan, condemned the National Award for the movie, claiming that he was gravely insulted by this decision.
The CM Tweeted, “By honouring a film that spreads blatant misinformation with the clear intent of tarnishing Kerala’s image and sowing seeds of communal hatred, the jury of the #NationalFilmAwards has lent legitimacy to a narrative rooted in the divisive ideology of the Sangh Parivar.”
–IANS
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