Director Sudipto Sen's The Kerala Story, the controversial film which is set to be released on May 5, has been granted an 'A' certificate with 10 cuts by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC).
Among the 10 cuts is an interview of a former chief minister of Kerala, said an India Today report. The Kerala CM is said to be VS Achuthanandan.
Another scene which is believed to have been deleted reportedly had "dialogues and inappropriate references to all Hindu Gods". Besides, the word 'Indian' from a dialogue 'Indian communists are biggest hypocrites' has also been deleted.
The Kerala Story Controversy
Written and directed by Sudipto Sen, The Kerala Story is portrayed as "unearthing" the events behind "approximately 32,000 women" allegedly going missing from Kerala.
The trailer came under fire as it claimed that 32,000 girls from the state went missing and later joined the terrorist group, Islamic State (IS).
According to the CPI(M) and the Congress in Kerala, the film falsely claims that the women got converted, radicalised and were deployed in terror missions in India and the world.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Sunday had slammed the makers of the film, saying they were taking up the Sangh Parivar propaganda of projecting the state as a centre of religious extremism by raising the issue of 'love jihad' -- a concept rejected by the courts.
Congress MP from Kerala's capital Thiruvananthapuram Shashi Tharoor has stated that the film is a misrepresentation of the state.
"Let me stress, I am not calling for a ban on the film. Freedom of expression does not cease to be valuable just because it can be misused. But Keralites have every right to say loud & clear that this is a misrepresentation of our reality," he tweeted.
Earlier Tharoor had tweeted, "It (the film) may be "your" Kerala story. It is not "our" Kerala story."
Meanwhile, the Muslim Youth League in Kerala has announced a Rs 1 crore reward for anyone who proves that 32,000 Malayali women were, in fact, radicalised by IS.