The Kerala Story Box Office Collection Day 14: Adah Sharma has proved her mettle with the controversial film The Kerala Story which is unstoppable at the box office. After entering the Rs 100 crore club within days of its release, the film is inching closer to Rs 200 crore. It has already beaten Salman Khan and Pooja Hegde's Bollywood movie Kisi Ka Bhai Kisi Ki Jaan to enter the top 5 grossing films of 2023. Now that the film is releasing in other countries, there is no looking back.
The Kerala Story Box Office Collection Day 14
After a stupendous box office run, The Kerala Story is not slowing down even after 14 days of its release. According to trade expert Taran Adarsh, the film earned Rs 7 Cr India net for all the languages. This makes The Kerala Story's total box office collection as Rs 171.72 cr after fourteen days. This is a big achievement for a film that was not considered as big at the time of its release.
With the constant demand for a ban in a few states and restraining orders, the film has proved to be a big success story.
The Kerala Story Trailer:
The Kerala Story Controversy:
The Kerala Story has faced protests and was demanded to be banned in West Bengal, while the screening was stopped in Tamil Nadu by the TN Theatre and Multiplex Owners Association. While the Supreme Court dismissed the demand to ban the film in WB, there is still friction among people for the film.
In ‘The Kerala Story’, actress Adah Sharma plays the role of Fathima Ba, a Hindu Malayali nurse, who is among the 32,000 women who went missing from Kerala and was then recruited to the ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) after being forced to convert to Islam. Also, the film highlights 'Love Jihad' propaganda, where Muslim men manipulate Hindu girls to convert to Islam and abandon their families.
Soon after the trailer of the film was released, a petition was filed against it on grounds of 'worst kind of hate speech' and 'audio-visual propaganda'. Many political leaders slammed the film and claimed that the makers are making false claims that it is a real story and that the number '32000 women' is fake.
The Kerala Story Makers Statement:
After the backlash, the makers removed the number '32000 women' from the trailer and the film's description and called it the story of three victims. They also opposed the ban on the film and asked everyone to watch it and stop the 'biased judgement'.
The Kerala Story producer Vipul Shah and director Sudipto Sen specifically dismissed the claims that their film propagates hatred against the Muslim community. Reacting to the allegations. Shah said in a press conference in Mumbai, “Sholay had Gabbar Singh as a villain. But that didn’t mean Ramesh Sippy Sahab was against Singh's community. Singham was a Hindu villain. That didn’t mean Hindus are bad. Why is this biased judgment against us? We have only talked about the perpetrators.”
Sudipto Sen said, “We are not here to do a balancing act. The whole world is going through this. When we talk about terror, we can’t automatically assume that we are targeting the religion. We have done a great service to Islam.” He also claimed that “There are two Keralas that exist inside Kerala-one which is like a postcard with backwaters, beautiful landscape, Kalarippayattu, dance, and martial arts. The other Kerala- the northern part -Malappuram, Kasaragod, Kozhikode which connects to Karnataka including Mangaluru, is a terror-network hub”.