The makers of The Kerala Story filed a petition against the shadow ban in Tamil Nadu, however the Apex Court was informed by the State that the film makers have falsely accused them for imposing a shadow ban on the movie.
The state briefed the court that the poor response to the movie has led to its ouster from movie theatres.
The reply was filed by the state before the Supreme Court to the petition by the filmmakers alleging a de facto ban in Tamil Nadu over the movie.
The government of Tamil Nadu has stated that the film makers have falsely accused that the state of Tamil Nadu has imposed a shadow or implicit ban by not allowing the movie to be screened in the theatres.
The reply by the centre read that the false statements were made deliberately to seek the undue indulgence of this court under Article 32 petition.
The state in its reply mentioned that the movie was released across 19 multiplexes and so far thepetitioners have not produced any document to show that the state has stopped the screening of the film.
The reply by State however adds that the theatre owners had voluntarily stopped screening the film on May 7th onwards due to poor performance of actors/ poor response to the movie or lack of well-known actors in the movie.
To keep their side strong,the Tamil Nadu government also submitted that they had deployed more police force in every multiplex so that cinema goers can watch the movie without any law and order issues.
The reply filed by Tamil Nadu police reads that over 965 police personnel including 25 DSPs were posted for the protection of the 21 movie theatres which had screened the film.
The state has clarified that it is the cinema theatre owners who had themselves stopped screening the film due to poor response to the movie and that the state of Tamil Nadu cannot do anything to increase viewership for the movie apart from giving security to the theatres screening the film.
The Kerala Story is a Hindi film about a group of women from Kerala who join ISIS. The film was released on May 5.
The movie has been in trouble as even before its release, it invited criticism from several quarters.
The ruling CPI(M) and the opposition Congress party had called it a propaganda movie promoting a fake narrative and an agenda of right wing organizations.