Kerala has been “gravely insulted” by the film The Kerala Story winning two National Film Awards, Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Friday.

Sudipto Sen was named best director and Prasantanu Mohapatra the best cinematographer for the film.

The award winners for 2023 were announced by the Union information and broadcasting on Friday.

The film, which released in May 2023, claims to depict how women from Kerala were converted to Islam and recruited by the Islamic State terror group. The filmmakers initially claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had joined the Islamic State, but when asked for evidence, they altered the trailer to state that the movie was a “compilation of the true stories of three young girls”.

On Friday, Vijayan said that by honouring a film that “spreads blatant misinformation with the clear intent of tarnishing Kerala’s image and sowing seeds of communal hatred”, the jury had “lent legitimacy to a narrative rooted in the divisive ideology of the Sangh Parivar”.

The Sangh Parivar was a reference to the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, the parent organisation of the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, and its affiliate groups.

“Kerala, a land that has always stood as a beacon of harmony and resistance against communal forces, has been gravely insulted by this decision,” Vijayan said on social media.

He added: “It is not just Malayalis, but...

Read more