Vipul Shah’s controversial film ‘The Kerala Story’ has done the unthinkable! Within days of the release of its incendiary trailer, the polarising film has zoomed to the top of the table in IMDb India’s list of Top 10 Most Anticipated Shows And Movies. Yes, ‘The Kerala Story’ is currently at Number One on IMDb India’s most anticipated Indian titles list.
In doing so, ‘The Kerala Story’ has beaten even Shah Rukh Khan’s hotly awaited ‘Jawan’ in its race to the top. Currently ‘The Kerala Story’ has 40.4% of page views – the criteria that IMDb India uses to determine the popularity of an upcoming film. Jawan is second on the list, with a lowly 19.5% page views, less than half those of ‘The Kerala Story’. ‘Adipurush’ is a distant third, with just 13.9% page views to its name.
The manner and suddenness of The Kerala Story’s climb to the top proves that no publicity is as effective as bad publicity to push the popularity of a film, and sow curiosity for it in the minds of the public. In The Kerala Story’s case, social media is full of criticism and disapproval from left-wing handles and people at large. And the more bad-mouthing a movie receives from left-wing types, the more right-wingers sway in favour of said film.
We saw it happen with ‘The Kashmir Files’. We can see it happening again with Vipul Amrutlal Shah’s ‘The Kerala Story’. Even Kerala MP Shashi Tharoor has weighed in on the film. To quote the suave, eloquent politician, this is what he wrote on Twitter – “It may be *your* Kerala story. It is not *our* Kerala story.”
Not just ‘The Kerala Story’ and its producer Vipul Shah, but even his wife Shefali Shah has come in for heavy criticism from left-wing Twitter users. All she did was repost the trailer of her husband’s film on her Instagram account. For which she’s been declared a ‘Sanghi’ and what not.
For those who still don’t know, ‘The Kerala Story’ centres on a group of women from Kerala, who are converted to Islam and compelled to join the extremist Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS). The film has become highly controversial for its claim that thousands of women from Kerala are similarly being converted to Islam and recruited into the ISIS. ‘The Kerala Story’ stars Adah Sharma and Yogita Bihani, among others. It is directed by Sudipto Sen.
Interestingly, the ‘The Kerala Story’ trailer is preceded by a warning on YouTube, regarding its sensitive content. It is one of very few Indian films whose trailer is accompanied with such a warning.
‘The Kerala Story’ premieres in theatres on May 5, 2023. Have a look at the incendiary trailer of the film –