'The Kerala Story': TN scribe asks govt to probe claims made in the movie

Chennai, Nov 08: Days after the teaser of upcoming movie 'The Kerala Story' was released, a Tamil Nadu journalist has written to Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan for investigating the veracity of the claims made in the promotional video of the movie.

In the clip, a woman claims that 32,000 girls from Kerala have been forcibly converted to Islam and made to join the terrorist group ISIS.

"My name was Shalini Unnikrishnan and I wanted to become a nurse and serve humanity. Now I am Fatima Ba, an Islamic State terrorist in a jail in Afghanistan. I am not alone. 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. Is there nobody to stop them? This is my story and the story of those 32,000 girls. This is The Kerala Story," the character played by Adah Sharma is heard saying in the clip.

Tamil Nadu journalist Aravindakshan BR has asked the Kerala CM to call the director to investigate the veracity of the claims. "Produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, Directed by Sudipto Sen, the teaser depicts the heart-wrenching story of 32,000 women from Kerala who were radicalized to join ISIS (Islamic Iraq and Syria) terrorist groups," he said in the letter, according to a report in ANI.

The journalist has also written to the Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur and Secretary Apurva Chandra over the issue.

"In the character played by actress Adha Sharma, she says that she used to be Shalini Unnikrishnan and wanted to serve people as a nurse. She says she was forcibly converted to Islam and renamed Fatima Ba, then joined ISIS and later imprisoned in Afghanistan," the letter added.

He warned the governments that the movie tarnishes the credibility of the intelligence agencies if released in theatres and OTT platforms with "false information." "Therefore, I request you to call and inquire the director of the movie, Sudipto Sen, on the basis of which sources this teaser was released," the journalist wrote in the letter.

The movie is directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Shah.