S Durga, Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's film which was originally titled Sexy Durga, has been regularly hitting the headlines for controversy.
However, the film is finally set to release in Kerala on March 23. The filmmaker announced that the promotion campaign for the film will start from 5.30 pm on Monday at the Manaveeyam Veedhi in Thiruvananthapuram.
The campaign will be launched by veteran director Adoor Gopalakrishnan.
Speaking to TNM, Sasidharan said, “The campaign will be one spread across Kerala, starting from Kasargod to Thiruvananthapuram, the state capital."
Explaining how the campaign will proceed, Sasidharan said, "An initiative called the ‘Cinema Vandi’ will promote the film under the banner of Kazhcha Chalachitra Vedhi. So the campaign will essentially include a pracharana yatra (promotion yatra) in which small skits will be included, and this will be done across Kerala."
“Our promise was that we will bring this film to wherever it is possible for screening. Film societies or groups were formed on the basis of this. People showed interest. And we did all the promotion for this through social media,” he added.
The film has earned honours such as the Hivos Tiger Award in the International Film Festival Rotterdam in 2017, Golden Apricot for the Best International Feature Competition at Armenia’s Yerevan International Film Festival, and Best International Feature Narrative in Guanajuato International Film Festival, Mexico.
It was also screened in several international film festivals like London Indian Film Festival and Hong Kong International Film Festival.
However, it was dropped at the Indian Panorama section of the IFFI over the title card. The complaint was that while the title had been changed from Sexy Durga to S Durga, the hashtags in the title suggested what the original word had been.
After a lot of struggle, the film got clearance with a U/A certificate from the CBFC.