Kerala 9 Nov ( BNiTimes.com ) The teaser of a movie titled ‘The Kerala Story’ is being widely shared on social media in which a burqa-clad woman recounts her past as a Hindu named Shalini Unnikrishnan who wanted to be a nurse. She then says that she is currently an ISIS terrorist lodged in an Afghanistan jail, and goes by the name Fatima Ba. Fatima also says that there are 32,000 girls like her who have been converted to Islam and sent to Syria and Yemen. “A dangerous game is on in Kerala to convert normal girls to dangerous terrorists, that too in front of everyone’s eyes,” she adds.
Many users shared the teaser saying/implying that it was the actual story of a woman from Kerala. Some used the hashtag #TrueStory.
Directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah, ‘The Kerala Story’ claims to unearth the happenings behind 32,000 women who went missing in the state of Kerala.
Sharing the teaser of the movie, Sen tweeted, “Shalini, Geetanjali, Nimah & Asifa marked my lifeline since last 5yrs. Choking me till I tell their stories. Soon u’ll get to see a film which u never imagined, in ur remotest imagination. Thank u Ambikaji, @YaduVJkrishnan, @sunshinepicture & Vipul A Shah from bottom of my heart.” (Archive).
In a conversation with ANI published in ThePrint in March 2022, Sen further said, “As per a recent investigation, since 2009 – nearly 32,000 girls from Kerala and Mangalore from Hindu and Christian communities have been converted to Islam and most of them end up landing in Syria, Afghanistan, and other ISIS and Haqqani influential areas! Despite accepting these facts, the government is hardly contemplating any definitive action plan against such huge international conspiracies led by ISIS-influenced groups.”
The character of Fatima, seen in the teaser, is played by actress Adah Sharma. She also shared the viral clip with the hashtag #TrueStory.
Well before Sharma’s tweet, #ISIS and ‘The Kerala Story’ started trending on Twitter. Several news media outlets including OpIndia, Zee News, Film Companion, The Statesman, Outlook, Times of India and others reported on this. Many reports mentioned, “According to a recent investigation, since 2009, nearly 32,000 girls from the Hindu and Christian communities in Kerala and Mangalore have converted to Islam; the majority of them end up in Syria, Afghanistan, and other regions with a high concentration of ISIS and Haqqani influence”.
Journalist Abhijit Majumdar tweeted an OneIndia report of the teaser release and wrote, “32,000 girls converted to Islam and sold as ISIS slaves: This is ‘The Kerala Story’
