Mumbai: Actress Adah Sharma has strongly reacted to the backlash which her film ‘The Kerala Story’ received for bagging the prestigious National Award in the Best Director and Best Cinematography categories at the recent 71st National Film Awards.
While critics labelled it as ‘shameful’ and ‘politically motivated’, she retorted saying that it is her moral “responsibility” as an artist to share the story of the victims. “Everyone is allowed to have their opinion. I think it would have been shameful not to make this film. I have met 25 girls who went through the horrors. The film is a diluted version of what they went through,” she told HT.
“I was very nervous for them to watch the film. But thankfully, they loved it. After meeting those girls, I felt it was my responsibility to tell their story,” she added.
Clapping back at haters for criticising the National Award for the film, Adah said, “If telling the truth is being shameful, then I don’t mind being shameless. I have no shame in saying I am anti-terrorism. People who are calling it shameful—I think it has hit a nerve, and I don’t think nerves are hit by lies.”
She continued, “There is no mention of any political leader or party. For me, it has been a story of girls who are trafficked, brainwashed, and taken to become terrorists. I stand with these girls. If that is political, then so be it.”
‘The Kerala Story’ is based on real accounts of young women, who were allegedly trafficked and forced into terrorist organisations. Adah portrayed the character of one such victim in the film.
Adah, who was last seen in Vikram Bhatt’s ‘Tumko Meri Kasam’, is currently busy shooting for two horror films and an action drama.
