Kerala chief minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Saturday said that awarding National Film Awards honour to The Kerala Story was an endorsement of attempts to misuse movies to spread communal hatred while his cultural affairs minister Saji Cheriyan declared that the award was part of the Sangh Parivar's political agenda.
Vijayan urged the cultural and film community to oppose such moves unitedly. He said it was "extremely unfortunate" that a film that insults Kerala's secular traditions and defames it before the world was honoured at the national film awards.
"This also insults the great cultural heritage of Indian cinema and sends out the message that art should be used to destroy the secularism of our country and replace it with communalism," he said before inaugurating the Kerala Film Policy Conclave.
He said that the film community needs to wake up against such a "distorted" portrayal of Kerala and put an end to such moves.
Filmmaker Sudipto Sen won the Best Director award for his film 'The Kerala Story', which also received the award for Best Cinematography.
The film had courted controversy for its portrayal of women in Kerala being forcefully converted and recruited by the terror group Islamic State.
State cultural affairs Minister Saji Cherian, who presided over the Kerala Film Policy Conclave, said the decision to hold the event followed the recommendations in the Justice Hema Committee report to tackle issues of sexual exploitation, discrimination, wage disparity and unfair working conditions prevalent in the Malayalam film industry.
Cheriyan alleged that The Kerala Story divides people, spreads hatred in society and insults an entire state.
"It's a proud achievement that our actors Urvashi and Vijayaraghavan have got awards. But, along with that, how could the recognition be given to the film The Kerala Story? How can an award be given like this? I don't understand on what criteria the film was chosen for the honour," he said.
Cheriyan alleged that such politics by the Sangh Parivar was creating fear among the people of the country.
"Strengthening the circumstance of hatred is the need of the political party which rules the country. To achieve this, they intervene in everything..even in small things. This award was given as part of that. It was a wrong thing," the minister said.
Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly, V D Satheesan, also criticised the decision to award national honours to The Kerala Story, alleging that the BJP government was using the National Film Awards as part of its hate campaign.
