UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath meets with The Kerala Story team in Lucknow. See pics

Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath held a meeting with team behind The Kerala Story on Wednesdya in Lucknow. Lead actor Adah Sharma, director Sudipto Sen, producer and creative Vipul Amrutlal Shah were present to talk and mingle with the political leader. A day earlier, the Hindi film was declared tax-free in the state. (Also read: The Kerala Story producer Vipul Shah responds to backlash, says film ‘is not against Muslims or Islam’)

In the meetup, the filmmakers along with Adah talking to the Chief Minister about the film. Vipul asked the politician to see the film. He is expected to watch the film in special screening with the rest of the cabinet at the Lok Bhawan on May 12.

Vipul told the news agency ANI, “Uttar Pradesh government and Yogi ji have taken this step and boosted our morale a lot strenthened our thinking. He has sent a very powerful message to the people due to audiences are watching this film in large numbers. So we are very thankful to the CM that it happened.”

Sudipto added, “We came to thank the Honorable Chief Minister to declare the film tax-free and giving a chance to the citizen of Uttar Pradesh to watch this film.”

Released in theatres on May 5, there have been calls to ban the film in states like Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. The Kerala Story also stars Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani in lead roles.

Earlier, producer Vipul shared that the Hindi film is not ‘against Muslims or Islam’ but against terrorism instead. They had made the film to share stories of victims and their families. He also revealed that many people had changed their mind after seeing the film and had apologised afterwards.

The Kerala Story crossed the ₹50 crore mark on its fifth day of release, earning ₹11.14 crore on Tuesday at the box office. It has earned ₹56.86 crore at the domestic box office so far and will be released internationally on May 12.

On Tuesday, Malayalam actor Tovino had questioned the facts presented in the film. He had said, “I’ll not deny the fact that this happened. But three out of 35 million — cannot be generalised and giving misinformation is very bad.”