Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh), 9th May 2023: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has proclaimed that the film ‘The Kerala Story’ will be screened tax-free in the state on Tuesday, May 9th.
“The Kerala Story will be made tax-free in the state,” declared CM Yogi in a Hindi tweet.
The film, which tells the story of three women who are sold to ISIS camps after marrying into Islam, has already sparked a political firestorm across the country. Politicians to the likes of Narendra Modi, JP Nadda, Anurag Thakur, Shashi Tharoor and many others have already commented on the release of the movie.
The Right Wing of the country is hailing the movie, while all the left and centrists parties have declared the movie an abomination, exaggeration of a partial truth and a threat to communal peace.
CM Yogi’s statement comes a day after West Bengal CM Mamata Banerjee declared that the film would be banned in the state due to the risk of causing violence.
Bengal CM had announced on Monday, “West Bengal govt has decided to ban the movie The Kerala Story. This is to avoid any incident of hatred and violence, and to maintain peace in the state.”
After Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh is the second state to abolish the film’s tax.
Earlier on Saturday, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan declared ‘The Kerala Story’ tax-free in the state, stating it “exposes the horrific face of love jihad, religious conversion, and terrorism.”
‘The Kerala Story’, starring Adah Sharma and written and directed by Sudipto Sen was released in theatres on May 5.
The release of the film was challenged in the Kerala High judge, but the judge refused to stop the release, stating that the trailer contains nothing objectionable to any particular community as a whole.
