New Delhi: Audiences, reviewers, and industry professionals all had different reactions to Sudipto Sen's 'The Kerala Story'. The film has been labelled propaganda by seasoned performers like Naseeruddin Shah and Kamal Haasan. Despite this, the movie was a financial success, becoming one of 2023's biggest hits after Shah Rukh Khan's 'Pathaan'. Adah Sharma, who played the lead role in The Kerala Story, recently discussed how the film's massive success was unaffected by criticism from actors like Naseeruddin Shah and Kamal Haasan.
Adah Sharma was recently interviewed by Jagran and asked what she thought of Naseeruddin Shah's and Kamal Kaaif's criticisms of the film.
She said, “I rejoiced at the freedom of speech we have in our country, where without even watching a film, it can be discredited, labelled and publicly be ripped apart. Anyone can say anything about anybody and can continue to live unharmed; that's the beauty of Bharat. I love my country! People with different ideologies can co-exist.”
The actress added, “It's wonderful that even after such famous actors made their stance about what they thought of the film clear, the audiences still chose to go to theatres to support a film that stood against terrorism.”
For the unversed, Kamal Haasan remarked on 'The Kerala Story', “I told you, it's propagandist films that I am against. It's not enough if you write a 'true story' just at the bottom as a logo. It has to really be true and that is not true.”
On the other hand, Naseeruddin Shah warned that moviegoers are putting themselves at risk by seeing 'The Kerala Story'.
The film, which was released on May 5, depicts how women from Kerala were forced to convert and recruited by the terror group Islamic State (IS).
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