The Tamil Nadu government has told the Supreme Court that the screening of The Kerala Story was stopped in theatres due to the poor response to the film. Responding to the petition by the makers of the film, who had alleged that the film had been banned in Tamil Nadu, the state told the Supreme Court that the filmmakers had falsely stated that the government had enforced the ban.
According to Bar and Bench, the affidavit filed by Tamil Nadu said, “The theatre owners had voluntarily stopped screening the film on May 7 onwards due to poor performance of actors/poor response to the movie or lack of well-known actors in the movie.” The state also denied that it had imposed a shadow ban on the film and asked the filmmakers to provide a document to show that the government had banned the film. The government further submitted that it had deployed police officers outside some multiplexes so that people could watch the movie without any hindrance.
The petitioners had contended that the Tamil Nadu government had sent an “alert” about impending protests against the screening of The Kerala Story, which is why theatre owners did not want to screen them.
The Tamil Nadu Theatre Owner Association stopped the screening of The Kerala Story on May 7. The decision came a day after the political party Naam Tamilar Katchi (NTK) demanded a halt to the screening of the film. On May 6, NTK party members staged protests in various parts of Tamil Nadu, including Chennai, Coimbatore, Vellore and the union territory of Puducherry, against the screening of the film. The head of NTK, Seeman, said that if the screening continued, their party members would buy tickets to the film and protest inside the theatres.