Bollywood plays a role in India’s election season, dominated by Modi

MUMBAI – A Bollywood film about a young Indian woman recruited by the Islamic State has sparked fresh controversy ahead of India’s general election, with opposition parties warning that its screening on state television on Friday night was a sign of “religious hostility.” He said there is a possibility of “sowing the seeds of

Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is banking on strong economic growth and benefits, as well as consistent persuasion of majority communities, to hold a multi-phase national election starting April 19. is widely expected to win.

The BJP has also fielded a number of stakeholders in the election, which will be counted on June 4.

But on Friday night, Bollywood’s involvement in the election took a complicated turn when “Kerala Story,” set in the opposition-run southern coastal state of the same name, aired on state broadcaster Doordarshan.

A surprise hit since its release last summer, the low-budget film follows three women who are brainwashed from Hinduism, convert to Islam, and are sent to an Islamic State camp in Afghanistan.

Critics claim that the film stirs up negative sentiments against India’s minority Muslim community.

Since Doordarshan is free for consumers, the channel reaches many homes across the country.

In a statement regarding the release of the film, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said, “Doordarshan is not an agency for joint campaigning for Bharatiya Janata Party candidates.”

“Secular Kerala will unite to resist such destructive attempts aimed at fomenting communal disharmony.”

The main opposition party, the Congress faction, has also voiced its opposition to the broadcast plan.

The Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which runs Doordarshan, did not respond to requests for comment. A Bharatiya Janata Party minister said the review had nothing to do with politics.

“Films are works of art and artistic expression is guaranteed in the Constitution,” V. Muraleedharan, deputy external affairs minister, also from Kerala, told reporters.

The BJP has a weak presence in many southern Indian states such as Kerala, but it hopes to win more seats there to give its coalition a total of more than 400 of the 543 seats in the Lok Sabha. .

The film, which PM Modi has publicly praised, is one of a series of Hindi films released since last year that have appealed to the BJP’s Hindu nationalist base.

Several nationalistic films, including a biopic on Hindu ideologue Vinayak Savarkar, were released in theaters this year in the run-up to the polls.

“Things are changing,” Randeep Hooda, who directed, produced and starred in the biopic, told Reuters. He said, “It’s a different country. It’s a different time, so different movies are being made.” He added, “Nationalist movies have done well in the past.”

Another film, “The Sabarmati Report,” is about the 2002 incident in the western state of Gujarat in which a mob believed to be Muslims torched a train carrying Hindu pilgrims, sparking one of the worst religious riots since India’s independence. is focused on.

It is scheduled to be released in May, right in the middle of the nationwide voting period.Reuters