Ban on The Kerala Story is Mamata's double standard, says filmmaker Sudipto Sen

A day after the Supreme Court stayed the ban on the film, Sen, who was in the city, said, "We all have political thoughts and ideologies but we need to overcome that due to professional compulsions. As a filmmaker, I am responsible to serve all the political parties of this country and all political ideologies of the world. It is very sad and wrong to ban a film without even watching it."

"I remember Mahua Moitra (MP from Mamata's Trinamool Congress) led the criticisms against the ban on the BBC documentary (on Modi and Gujarat riots). I clearly remember Mamata Banerjee was the first to raise her voice against the call to ban Padmavaat," Sen said.

"Now what are our faults that The Kerala Story has been banned? I feel this is a double standard which is not serving any good purpose in our Indian politics," the filmmaker added.

The Kerala Story, starring Adah Sharma in one of the leads, depicts the alleged radicalisation and conversion of young Hindu and Christian women to Islam in Kerala and their recruitment into the terrorist organisation Islamic State or ISIS.

Mamata Banerjee, who accuses the country's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party of curtailing freedom of speech, had put a ban calling the film "a distorted story" earning criticisms from even the Left and Congress.

While justifying its stand on banning The Kerala Story in the state, the West Bengal government told the Supreme Court that the film may hurt communal sentiments and cause disharmony between the communities which can lead to law and order issues.

Passing a stay order, the top court on Thursday said, "Law cannot be used to put a premium on public intolerance, otherwise all films will land in the same spot."

However even on Friday, the film was not shown in any hall of the state despite the stay on the ban.

"We came to Kolkata hoping the film will be screened. But no show yet is very sad and surprising to all of us," said Sen.

(Photography: Avishek Mitra/IBNS)