The makers of the much-speculated film ‘The Kerala Story’, tweeted the release of their latest ‘gripping’ film titled ‘Bastar’ on Monday.
Table of Contents
Bastar : A ‘Gripping’ Tale by ‘The Kerala Story’ Makers!
Riding on the success of The Kerala Story, filmmaker Sudipto Sen along with producer Vipul Amrutlal Shah announced the launch of their forthcoming movie ‘Bastar’ on Monday. Bastar is a small district in Chhattisgarh and is recognized for its tribal population.
Image Source: India Today
The film’s announcement is accompanied by an eerie and enigmatic poster that presents a mysterious forest depiction amidst vast and gloomy clouds. The presence of a rifle makes the picture all the more thrilling.
The poster is complemented with an emphatic caption that reads – “Hidden truth that will take the nation by a storm – Bastar.” The film is based on real-life events of The Naxalites and is scheduled to release on 5th April 2024.
Vipul Shah’s ‘Sunshine Pictures Pvt. Ltd’ will finance the film in association with Last Monk Media. The Production house took to Twitter and tweeted the unveiling of their latest project and spiked up the audience’s adrenaline by labelling it as a ‘gripping true incident’ and promising to leave the viewers ‘speechless!’
Director, Sudipto Sen, in an interview, discloses that the film revolves around the 50 years of the Maoist Movement in India. For Sen, the production of The Kerala Story was an extremely satisfying experience and he looks forward to partnering up with Shah for this next project.
‘The Kerala Story’ Makes A Smash at The Box Office
In their last collaboration, ‘The Kerala Story’, Sen and Shah reigned at the Box Office, making a fortune of almost 238 crores! The release of the film ‘The Kerala Story’, on May 5 2024, sparked a lot of positive as well as negative reactions from the public. The film created a huge political buzz with its screening, leading to a flood of public opinions.
Image Source: The Times of India
The ‘The Kerala Story’ starring Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani, Pranay Pachauri and Sonia Balani as the protagonists, captures the story of Kerala women who were coerced to convert to Islam and join the terror group Islamic State (IS).
Initially, the story projected the lives of 32,000 victims falling prey to this conspiracy, however, ensuing public bedlam and further inspection, the film confined its scope and depicted the journey of three women.
Brouhaha and Polarised Reaction to ‘The Kerala Story’
Upon such divided dialogues and turbulence, The West Bengal Government, fearing community contentions and riots, put an embargo on ‘The Kerala Story’. Even the cinemas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala excluded the airing of the film owing to law and order issues and low attendance of viewers.
On the other hand, in BJP-governed states like Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Madhya Pradesh and Haryana, the film was granted tax-free status.
Image Source: BollywoodMDB
The controversy also pulled within its gambit voices from the Bollywood industry. With celebs like Kangana Ranaut, Vivek Agnihotri and Ram Gopal Verma expressing their opinions in the film’s defence, artists Naseeruddin Shah and Kamal Hassan stated their disapproval of the film.
In an interview, Sen admitted that he was ‘unprepared to deal with the backlash’ his last film received. He had not imagined the talkie would cause such pandemonium in the political and entertainment realm. He reveals that he only wanted to portray the story of the lives of the girls.
Both Sudipto Sen and Vipul Sharma vehemently set out to uncloak the sheath of lies and expose the real truths of society through their filmmaking.
The poster of Bastar has already garnered a lot of excitement and anticipation among netizens.
