Adah Sharma says The Kerala Story isn’t propaganda: ‘They cannot say it is some political party agenda’

The Kerala Story is based on the alleged radicalisation of Kerala women by Islamic fundamentalists. Besides Adah, the film also stars Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani. The film has been made tax-free in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana. But it has been banned in West Bengal by the state CM Mamata Banerjee.

Speaking on the film’s release in 37 countries on May 12, Adah shared, “It was definitely not a plan in the beginning. As you know, it is not a big-budget movie. That (global release) was not the plan. After it was released in India, a lot of people were expressing their views and were writing about it.”

She continued, “Abroad, this ISIS bride is a situation that everyone addresses and speaks about very openly. There are a lot of activists talking about it. Everyone knows that it exists and therefore, they want to get terrorism out. When they got to know what the subject is, we got calls from Denmark, Sweden, Ireland and Korea. So many places showed interest to release the film.”

She also said the film doesn’t have agenda. “They cannot say it is some political party agenda. They cannot bring in elections also now because all of this is over and the film is doing even better now than it was before. They cannot call it propaganda because people from abroad are also saying that such things actually exist. People are putting out actual testimonials.

Adah has been on cloud nine ever since the release of The Kerala Story. She recently said she didn’t “expect such a response” for the film. “My dreams were always small, like wanting to play with an elephant or a dog, of course. I wanted to do good roles, but I never knew how many I would get. I consider myself fortunate. I never dreamed of something like this. I felt that it was not possible for a girl who doesn’t belong to the industry to receive so much love from the audience,” Adah told ANI.