The Kerala Story row continues in West Bengal, theatre official says ‘slots are filled, can screen after three weeks’

Theatre officials in West Bengal said that ‘slots are filled up for the next two weeks’ in halls, days after the Supreme Court’s order over the ban on The Kerala Story. In a new interview, an official said that they can’t cancel the booked slots. They also added that they can think about the screening of the film ‘after two or three weeks’. (Also Read | The Kerala Story box office day 17: Film to cross ₹200 crore today)

The Supreme Court stayed the ban imposed by the West Bengal government on The Kerala Story on May 18. However, the movie is still not running in most of the halls in the state. The state government has still not issued any new circular.

The Managing Director of Priya Entertainment Arijit Dutta told news agency ANI, “This is a blockbuster movie but we are sorry as all slots are filled up for the next two weeks. It’s not possible for us to cancel the booked slots to make a place for the new one. After two or three weeks we can think about the screening of The Kerala Story.”

Arijit also mentioned that The Kerala Story had a good run in the initial days before the ban was imposed. The Managing Director also said that he was ‘hopeful’ that the movie would run for ’50 days’ in halls in the state given a chance.

After the ban was lifted, film’s director Sudipto Sen had said as quoted by ANI, “We are in constant touch with distributors from West Bengal. We are receiving calls from hall owners that they are receiving calls not to show the film.” The director also firmly stated that once he got to know who are these people threatening the hall owners, then he would definitely reveal the names.

A booking official at the Ashoka cinema (Behala) Durbadal Chatterjee told ANI, “We know that it’s a blockbuster movie, in fact when the movie was released, we screened here for four days after that government banned the movie. At that time all shows of this movie were booked. Now we can’t do anything.”

The apex court had directed the makers of The Kerala Story to give a proper disclaimer regarding the unsubstantiated figure ‘32,000’ mentioned in the film. Senior Advocate Harish Salve, appearing for film producers, says that disclaimer -“there is no authentic data to back up the suggestion that the figure of conversions is 32,000 or any other established figure” and “the film represents the fictionalised version” of the issue- shall be added.

with ANI inputs