New Delhi [India], August 2 (ANI): Congress leader KC Venugopal slammed The Kerala Story, terming it a film that 'deserves to be in the dustbin' for pushing a 'rotten agenda' and defaming Kerala.

He called its National Award win a clear sign of the BJP promoting hate from the highest levels of government.

Venugopal asserted that Kerala's 'loving, welcoming, and brotherly' people would reject this 'insult' and ensure the BJP faces severe electoral repercussions for generations.

In his X post, he wrote, 'The Kerala Story movie deserves to be in the dustbin. It peddles a rotten agenda and maligns my beautiful state of Kerala. This movie getting the National Award is the most perfect example of how the BJP sponsors and promotes hate from the highest echelons of government. Kerala will never ever tolerate this insult it has received from the government of its own country. The loving, welcoming and brotherly people of Kerala will punish the BJP so hard that they will not even dream of gaining any acceptance for generations to come.'

At the 71st National Film Awards, 'The Kerala Story' won Best Director and Best Cinematography awards.

Directed by Sudipto Sen, 'The Kerala Story', which was released on May 5, 2023, emerged as one of the most successful films at the box office. However, the movie came in for severe criticism from some quarters, with many, including Opposition leaders, alleging that it falsely claimed that 32,000 women, who went missing from Kerala, were forced into terrorism upon alleged conversion or sold to ISIS as sex slaves.

The movie faced a backlash in several states, with the Mamata Banerjee-led West Bengal government imposing a ban on screening the film in the state. (ANI)