When Sudipto Sen recalled the pain that inspired 'The Kerala Story'; Survivors lived without food And power - THROWBACK

In May 2023, The Kerala Story team—director Sudipto Sen, producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah, and lead actor Adah Sharma—held a press conference that offered a rare, moving insight into what inspired the making of the film.

Three survivors of religious conversion, whose stories partly shaped the film’s narrative, were also present at the event. Sudipto Sen spoke with quiet intensity as he revisited the first time he met them, years ago.

“The house was some kilometres away from Ernakulam,” he began. “There was no electricity—disconnected. They survived without food and light for days. When they went to the market to buy vegetables, people would snatch their bags.” The imagery was stark. “I remember, there was just a faint light coming from the gap between the doors. That moment stayed with me.”

A chilling reality that birthed a bold story

Sen met the survivors back in 2015–16, and the experience left a lasting mark. He saw firsthand how their lives had been ravaged by exploitation and fear, and how even the basic dignity of existence had been stripped away. “You can understand how people misused their openness and left them in such a condition,” he said. Those interviews planted the seed for The Kerala Story—a film he believed needed to be told, no matter how difficult.

The film, which released on May 5, 2023, was both lauded and criticised for its bold take on the theme of radicalisation and religious conversion by terror outfits. Yet for Sen, it was never just a political narrative—it was a human one.

A story of three women and one haunting truth

The Kerala Story follows the traumatic journey of three women: one who was gang-raped after resisting conversion, one who ended her life after blackmail, and one, played by Adah Sharma, who was trafficked to Syria and made a sex slave. Meanwhile, there are several criticisms aimed at the film for the fact that the movie spread several inaccurate facts and was purposefully aimed at tarnishing the image of Kerala - The God's Own Country. The movie was also trolled for it's misrepresentation of a Malayali women and her lifestyle, where the director was said to be lacking a basic knowledge about the same.