Two Keralites, Srinath, a documentarian, and Visual Artist Archana Ravi, were held in police custody at the Panaji police headquarters for keeping a satirical image and meme disparaging the hate propaganda movie ‘The Kerala Story’.

They had pinned a sheet of paper to their T-shirts showing the meme “Sudipto Sen: The Kerala Story, Source: Trust me bro!” and were detained by police and subsequently barred from attending the venue after the officials took possession of their accreditations.

“It is disheartening that the film was screened at a prestigious festival like IFFI. It is a propaganda movie which maligns the state and caste aspirations of the minority community,” said Sreenath.

They had a verbal confrontation with the director over the false claim displayed in the movie which had been fact checked and revealed as erroneous. Director Sudipto Sen backed away by saying, “You haven’t seen the movie.”