Propaganda Film 'The Kerala Story' Sparks Outrage After Winning National Awards
The Kerala Story received two major honours at the 71st National Film Awards on Friday: Best Director for Sudipto Sen and Best Cinematography for Prasantanu Mohapatra. The announcement immediately sparked a political storm, particularly in Kerala.
For a film that was previously asked by courts to clarify that it was a fictionalised work with inauthentic statistics, this recognition from India’s most prestigious film body came as a surprise to many, and as an affront to others.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan called the award “an insult to the noble tradition of Indian cinema that stood for religious brotherhood and national integration.” Opposition leaders echoed his concerns, claiming that the awards were being used to validate a film built on “blatant misinformation and communal propaganda,” he wrote on social media.
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 of the #NationalFilmAwards has lent legitimacy to a narrative rooted in the divisive ideology of the Sangh Parivar. Kerala, a…
— Pinarayi Vijayan (@pinarayivijayan) August 1, 2025
Many voiced the same worry, that by celebrating The Kerala Story, the jury had legitimised a politically driven narrative that sought to tarnish the image of Kerala and its deeply pluralistic society.
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Congress MP K.C. Venugopal said the award was proof of how “the BJP sponsors and promotes hate from the highest echelons of government.”
The Kerala Story movie deserves to be in the dustbin. It peddles a rotten agenda and maligns my beautiful state of Kerala.
This movie getting the national award is the most perfect example of how the BJP sponsors and promotes hate from the highest echelons of government.…
— K C Venugopal (@kcvenugopalmp) August 1, 2025
Kerala’s Education Minister V. Sivankutty remarked that the award “devalued” the credibility of other Malayalam films that had won for artistic merit.
The Kerala Story, released in May 2023, is presented as the journey of Shalini Unnikrishnan, a young Hindu nursing student from Kerala who is brainwashed into converting to Islam and eventually trafficked to join the Islamic State in Syria.
Told largely in flashback during her interrogation at the Afghan border, the film dramatises her tragic descent from student to suicide bomber-in-training.
What gave the film its initial notoriety was not just the plot, but the way it was marketed. The teaser claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had been similarly radicalised and recruited to ISIS, a number that was never backed by any data or official records.
Under legal scrutiny, the filmmakers withdrew the claim and added disclaimers stating that the film was “a fictionalised account” inspired by three real women. Still, the film repeated the inflated figures multiple times, even once stating 50,000, long after courts had asked them to stop.
By then, however, the myth had already reached the masses.
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The ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) actively promoted the film. Prime Minister Narendra Modi mentioned it during the 2023 Karnataka election campaign, using it to accuse opposition parties of ignoring alleged threats of terrorism. Screenings were arranged across BJP-ruled states, where it was declared tax-free. Party leaders hosted special viewings for young women and students. The RSS called it a “dangerous truth.”
In this environment, the line between cinema and campaign began to blur. The film became less a work of art and more a political talking point.
Meanwhile, leaders across Kerala, both from the Communist-led ruling coalition and the Congress-led opposition, condemned the film for pushing the Hindutva-driven conspiracy theory of “love jihad.”
Protesters across Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, and Kerala held demonstrations, and several petitions were filed seeking to ban the film. Though the courts did not grant the bans, they did enforce the removal of misleading promotional content.
Upon its release, The Kerala Story was met with near-unanimous rejection from critics. It was widely panned for its content and execution, with India Today later listing it among the worst Hindi films of 2023.
Many reviews noted that the film portrayed women as passive tools caught between competing ideologies, rather than as individuals with agency.
However, The Kerala Story was a commercial success. It earned over ₹300 crore globally, placing it among the top-grossing Hindi films of 2023. It performed well in North India, but saw limited runs and resistance in southern states.
