Honouring 'The Kerala Story' endorses use of films to spread communal hatred: CM Vijayan

Thiruvananthapuram: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said that awarding national film honours to 'The Kerala Story' can only be seen as an endorsement of attempts to misuse movies to spread communal hatred and urged the cultural and film community to oppose such moves unitedly.

Vijayan said it was "extremely unfortunate" that a film which insults Kerala's secular traditions and defames it before the world was honoured at the national film awards.

"This also insults the great cultural heritage of Indian cinema and sends out the message that art should be used to destroy the secularism of our country and replace it with communalism," he said, prior to inaugurating the Kerala Film Policy Conclave here.

He said that the film community needs to wake up against such a "distorted" portrayal of Kerala and put an end to such moves.

The CM had on Friday also sharply criticised the decision to award national film honours to "The Kerala Story".

Filmmaker Sudipto Sen won the Best Director award for his film 'The Kerala Story', which also received the award for Best Cinematography.

The film had courted controversy for its portrayal of women in Kerala being forcefully converted and recruited by the terror group Islamic State.

Vijayan also said that it needs to be examined why the Kerala film industry has not received the level of recognition it deserves and hoped that it would be a topic of discussion at the conclave held at the Sankaranarayanan Thampi Hall inside the Legislative Assembly complex in Thiruvananthapuram.

He further said that the conclave was organised with the aim of formulating a comprehensive film policy for the all-round growth and development of Malayalam cinema, as it was imperative to modernise and expand it with the changing times.

During his inaugural speech, the CM said that some people believe that extreme violence was creeping into movies and drug use and alcoholism were being glorified.

He urged film directors to remember that everything becomes artistic when presented symbolically and that scenes of extreme violence can distort the psyche of children.

Vijayan also pointed out that glorifying use of drugs and alcoholism was equivalent to the offence of promoting their use.

"Drug use should be eradicated not only from the plots of films, but from the entire film industry," he added.

He said that the government was already intervening in the issue and requested the film industry to fully cooperate in the same in order to set an example.

Vijayan also reminded everyone in the film sector of the need to work together to solve problems by setting aside their egos as their existence is dependent on the industry's survival.

State Cultural Affairs Minister Saji Cherian, who presided over the event, said that it was decided to hold such a conclave following the recommendations in the Justice Hema Committee report to tackle issues of sexual exploitation, discrimination, wage disparity and unfair working conditions prevalent in the film industry.

The committee was constituted based on the demands of the Women in Cinema Collective (WCC) after the 2017 actress assault incident.

Around 500 delegates, including representatives from the Malayalam film industry like Mohanlal and Suhasini Maniratnam, film personalities from outside the state and abroad, participated in the conclave.