Tovino Thomas Weighs In On ‘The Kerala Story’ Controversy, Says “Don’t Let Anybody Feed Misinformation”
Malayalam actor Tovino Thomas recently opened up about the controversy surrounding ‘The Kerala Story’, saying that “stop believing anything blindly.”
Adah Sharma’s latest Bollywood movie ‘The Kerala Story’, which opened to underwhelming reviews, has already crossed the Rs 50 crore mark at the domestic box office. The new Hindi movie, also starring Yogita Bihani, Siddhi Idnani and Sonia Balani, has been making headlines ever since the trailer of the new Hindi movie released. Everyone is giving their two cents on the Bollywood film and the latest one to weigh in on the controversy surrounding the film is Malayalam actor Tovino Thomas.
Tovino Thomas, who is recently promoting his new Malayalam film ‘2018’ based on the 2018 Kerala floods, interacted with The Indian Express.
On being asked about how he feels that people are calling ‘2018’ “The real Kerala Story”, and if he was hurt that ‘The Kerala Story’ is trying to paint the state in a certain light, Tovino said that because three people are mentioned, it can’t be generalised as the Kerala story.
He said, “See, I haven’t watched that movie (The Kerala Story) yet and I haven’t spoken to anyone who has watched the movie. I saw the trailer. Its description said ‘32000 women…’ And then the makers themselves changed it from 32000 to 3. What does that mean? As far as I know there are 35 million people in Kerala and with these three incidents nobody can generalise it.”
Tovino Thomas further said, “I’ll not deny the fact that this happened in Kerala. This might have happened. I don’t personally know it but I have read it in news. Today whatever we see are not facts, just opinions. On five different channels we see the same news in five different versions. So, I don’t know what is right and what is wrong but I have heard these opinions. So, I’ll not deny the fact that this happened. But three out of 35 million — cannot be generalised and giving misinformation is very bad.”
The Malayalam actor also questioned the makers of ‘The Kerala Story’ saying, “32000, later they changed it, but in the first place why did they mention 32000? We all know that 32000 was a fake figure, now it has been changed to three. What does that mean? I don’t want to state anything but people will understand.”
“I want people to stop believing blindly. Whatever it is, we all are human beings. We all have the same brain capacity, so stop believing anything blindly. Even if I say something, don’t believe it blindly. Think! You have a brain so think and decide. It is 2023, we are supposed to stop believing blindly and start thinking, rationalising. Don’t let anybody feed misinformation to you,” he added.
Tovino Thomas also said that people can show fictional stories in cinema but it was wrong to name the film, ‘The Kerala Story’.
“Cinema can be fiction. Nothing wrong in making a fictional movie but naming it The Kerala Story, no that is not the Kerala story. I’ll not admit it, that’s not the story of Kerala. I know that. I am born and raised in Kerala and that is not the Kerala story.”
'The Kerala Story' has been directed by Sudipto Sen, while it is bankrolled by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.
