Controversy and box office numbers often go hand in hand, but for ‘The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond’, the battle has moved from the ticket window to the courtroom. This film was going to be released in theaters on Friday, February 27, 2026 i.e. today. However, the Kerala High Court has put an interim stay of 15 days on this spiritual sequel. Advance booking of this film had also been done but due to the court order, everything has been put on hold.
Why was the 15-day ban imposed?
Let us tell you that the High Court gave this order during the hearing on the petitions filed against ‘The Kerala Story 2: Goes Beyond’. The petitioners argued in the court that the subject of the film and its release could spread communal tension in the society and disturb public peace. Taking these arguments seriously, the court banned the release of the film for the next 15 days. This means that the film will not be released in any theater during this period. This decision is a big blow for the makers of the film.
Advance booking of the film was done
Interestingly, advance booking of the film had started even before the legal hurdle and it started its journey at the box office with pre-sale of 5K tickets on Book My Show (BMS). Now, due to the stay on the film, its advance booking may get canceled or the ticket money may be refunded. The film may have to suffer a lot due to this.
Why is there controversy over ‘The Kerala Story 2’?
Let us tell you that the teaser of ‘The Kerala Story 2’ was released on 30 January. Since then this film has been embroiled in controversies. The teaser depicts the story of three Hindu girls (Ulka Gupta, Aishwarya Ojha and Aditi Bhatia), in whose life a conspiracy to convert to religion is revealed after a love affair. In the teaser, the girls express their pain wearing hijab and at the end the slogan ‘Now we will not tolerate… we will fight’ is heard. The teaser starts with a big claim – In 25 years, India will become an Islamic state. This was enough to start a debate. Another scene from the teaser, which has become a topic of discussion, is when the lead actress is shown being force-fed beef by her in-laws. The teaser shows her husband holding her hands tightly, and also holding her nose and force-feeding her beef.
A petition was filed against The Kerala Story 2
After the release of the teaser, a biologist named Srideva Namboodiri filed a petition in the Kerala High Court, seeking either a stay on the film’s release and public screening or a direction to the Central Government to consider and decide the Exhibit P3 revision petition within the time limit fixed by this Court, and until the same is decided, the release of the film be stopped. The petition argues that the film contains “malicious and outlandish statements that defame the entire state without any basis.”
It further states, “The film seeks to isolate Kerala and the people of Kerala from the rest of India. Moreover, the name is a deliberate attempt to portray as real a more or less speculative fear of the writer or director. Although the petitioner is not against the freedom of the writer-filmmaker to express his fear, whether real or imagined, he cannot wrongly attribute that fear to Kerala and the entire state.”
Kerala CM had called ‘The Kerala Story 2’ propaganda
Kerala Chief Minister P. Vijayan had also expressed strong opposition to the film and termed it as propaganda and a threat to secularism. CM Vijayan had supported the demand to boycott the film on social media platform X. He had written, “The news related to the release of the sequel of the hate film ‘The Kerala Story’ should be taken seriously. Kerala, having understood well the communal agenda and blatant lies shown in the first part, has once again boycotted this attempt to tarnish secularism.”
He further wrote, “It is extremely shocking that stories fabricated with the aim of inciting communal riots are given a free hand, while critical expression of art is suppressed. We have to unite and oppose these attempts to prove our harmonious land as a den of terror. Truth will always prevail.”
What did the film makers say?
While the makers of the film have said that the film is not against the state, producer Vipul Amritlal Shah had earlier said, “We are not after Kerala. Kerala is God’s country… We want this evil to end from that state as soon as possible. He had said, “Some people spoke ill of the first film, and said that the figure of 32,000 is wrong, we made a video on YouTube on this figure, which is still available. We have added the names and shown the statistics. The government may have more data than us, but we have never heard of any strict action being taken since the release of the film.”
