New Delhi: Producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah denied that The Kerala Story 2’s release was planned with the upcoming elections in the state in mind. Speaking at an event in Delhi, Shah said, “Bengal will hold elections before Kerala. Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra already had their elections. If this were about politics, we would have timed it even before the Kerala elections.”
The makers and cast of the film were present at a press conference in the Stein auditorium, at the India Habitat Centre in New Delhi on 23 February.
The film is the second part of The Kerala Story series, which depicts four women who convert to Islam before being recruited by the Islamic State. The sequel is set to be released on 27 February.
The trailer of The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond opens with a warning: India will become an Islamic state in the next 25 years. Directed by Kamakhya Narayan Singh, it shows three women — from Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Kerala — being lured by Muslim men to marry and then forced to convert. Shah had also produced the first instalment of the film, The Kerala Story (2023).
The trailer shows the women’s parents repeatedly warning them against marrying a Muslim man. This is followed by shots of Muslim men unleashing abuse on the three women after marriage, including force-feeding them beef, physical abuse, and even soliciting them for other men.
“If you are blind to problems in your state, then you are responsible, not us. Our job is to show the problem,” Shah added.
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‘We’re filmmakers, not politicians’
The filmmakers also introduced and welcomed on stage 33 real victims of forced Islamic conversions from across the country. The film’s three protagonists, Ulka Gupta, Aditi Bhatia and Aishwarya Ojha, were also part of the event.
“We are filmmakers. Do not drag us into politics,” said director Kamakhya Narayan Singh, in response to a question about the film’s agenda. Singh had earlier condemned filmmaker Anurag Kashyap and actor Prakash Raj for criticising the film. Kashyap, in a recent interview, had called the film “propaganda”.
“It’s called crap. They just want to make money and please everybody; divide people. The filmmaker is a greedy man. He just wants to make money,” Kashyap told reporters Monday.
The victims, on whose experiences the film is based, came from Bengal, Bihar, Udaipur, Jammu, and Maharashtra, and from several other states across India.
Shah and Singh urged the survivors to occupy the stage and share their stories with the audience.
“I often hear people say that ‘Love Jihad’ and forced conversions are not happening in India. So we have brought together victims from all over the country,” said Shah.
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The survivor’s stories
The first woman to narrate her experience was Tara Shahdeo, a national-level shooter from Ranchi, who explained in detail how she was tricked into marrying a man who first posed himself as Ranjit Kohli and later revealed his identity as Rakibul Hasan. Shahdeo, who married the man in 2014, was forced to convert and was later subjected to physical and domestic abuse.
Shahdeo had filed an FIR alleging that he started pressuring her to convert from the second day of the marriage, and was helped by a local magistrate named Mustaque Ahmed. After escaping the two, Shahdeo won the case in October 2023, and her husband was sentenced to life in prison; his mother and the magistrate were also meted out prison sentences.
“I was a 12th pass girl, who had no power. I have spent 40 days in hell, and all I could think of is how to escape. They also took me to the magistrate’s house, and I was told that I had to eat beef,” recalled Shahdeo. She also called the family members of her ex-husband “terrorists”, who had satellite phones and took bags of cash from strangers. She claimed that she was not the first girl they had exploited.
Gauri Shelar, from Maharashtra, narrated her ordeal of being raped in 2008, after her food was spiked by a man she befriended online, who was pretending to be Hindu. Shelar was a minor at the time.
“Mahim Dargah in Mumbai is where forced conversions of Hindu women take place. I was also taken there,” said Shelra, her voice quivering, as she explained how she was assaulted by other men and was also forced to abort a pregnancy.
One after another, the women started speaking of their experiences of being trapped by Muslim men. One survivor went on to say how teaching tenets of Sanatam Dharm would help young Hindu women “escape” Muslim men.
“Girls should be taught what Sanatam Dharam is. Education does not save women because it teaches women to earn by any means possible. Teaching women from a young age to understand that our religion is superior will save them from ‘Love Jihad’,” the survivor, who chose to not reveal her name, said.
(Edited by Insha Jalil Waziri)