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The Kerala Story 2 producer tells Kerala HC that plea against film is ‘premature’, subject extends beyond one state
Director Kamakhya Narayan Singh and producer Vipul Shah's The Kerala Story will release on February 27. The film sparked controversy for its teaser.
The Kerala High Court is hearing the plea against the upcoming release of The Kerala Story 2 on Wednesday. On Tuesday, the Kerala HC observed that the upcoming film The Kerala Story 2 - Goes Beyond depicts a state like Kerala where everyone lives in communal harmony in a negative light.
In the latest update on news agency PTI, the producer of 'The Kerala Story 2 - Goes Beyond' has told the Kerala High Court that the pleas opposing the film's release were "premature, misconceived and not maintainable".
What the makers said about the film
Justice Bechu Kurian Thomas heard the petitions in detail at 3 pm. The film's producer, Vipul Amrutlal Shah, submitted an affidavit in which he contended that the censor board, CBFC, was the sole expert authority constituted under the Cinematograph Act, 1952, to examine films in their entirety and certify them for public exhibition.
"The supervisory jurisdiction of this court does not extend to substituting its own assessment of a film's content for the expert judgment of the certifying authority," he has said in his affidavit. He has also denied the allegations in the pleas against the movie and termed them as "an abuse and misuse of the process of law".
About the title
Regarding the film's title, he has said that the qualifier 'Goes Beyond' in the film's name was "not decorative".
"It is a deliberate and conspicuous textual signal, prominently displayed in the teaser at multiple timestamps, that the film's narrative extends beyond the geography of Kerala. The definite article 'The' in the title is a reference to the first film in the franchise and does not restrict the film's subject matter to Kerala alone."
"A scenario where any individual or group can effectively veto the exhibition of a certified film simply by threatening disorder would render meaningless both the CBFC certification process and the constitutional guarantee of free expression," the affidavit said.
The Kerala Story 2 explores themes of religious conversion and coercion, set across Kerala, Rajasthan, and Madhya Pradesh. Starring Ulka Gupta, Aditi Bhatia, and Aishwarya Ojha, the film arrives in cinemas on February 27.
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