Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday stated that giving national film honours to 'The Kerala Story' could only be interpreted as a means of sanctioning efforts to use films as a means of spreading communal hatred and called upon the cultural and film fraternity to resist such efforts collectively.
Vijayan termed it as "extremely unfortunate" that a movie which offends Kerala's secular traditions and humiliates it in the eyes of the world was feted at the national film awards.
"This also offends the great cultural tradition of Indian cinema and sends out the message that art should be employed to wreck the secularism of our nation and establish communalism," he said, on the eve of inaugurating the Kerala Film Policy Conclave here.
He added that the world of cinema must wake up against such a "distorted" representation of Kerala and stop such attempts.
Also read: Two Kerala nuns granted bail in religious conversion case
Director Sudipto Sen received the Best Director award for his 'The Kerala Story', which also earned the award for Best Cinematography.
The movie had courted controversy over its representation of women in Kerala being forcibly converted and recruited by the terror outfit Islamic State.
Vijayan also expressed that there should be an analysis of why the cinema industry of Kerala has not got the sort of attention it deserves and wished that it would form an agenda for discussion at the conclave that took place in the Sankaranarayanan Thampi Hall within the Legislative Assembly complex in Thiruvananthapuram.
He added that the conclave was arranged with the purpose of drafting a holistic film policy for all-round development and growth of Malayalam cinema, as it was necessary to modernise and promote it according to the changing times.
State Culture Minister Saji Cherian, the chair of the event, said the decision was taken to organise such a conclave as per the suggestions made in the Justice Hema Committee report to address the issues of sexual exploitation, discrimination, wage gap, and unjust work environment that are common in the film industry.
The committee was formed in line with the WCC's demands following the 2017 actress assault case.
Approximately 500 delegates, representing the Malayalam film fraternity such as Mohanlal and Suhasini Maniratnam, film personalities based outside the state and abroad, took part in the conclave.
Follow us
