evidence: The Kerala Story is a 2023 Indian Hindi-language drama film directed by Sudipto Sen and produced by Vipul Amrutlal Shah.[1] It stars Adah Sharma, Yogita Bihani, Sonia Balani, and Siddhi Idnani. The plot follows a group of women from Kerala who are coerced into converting to Islam and joining the Islamic State.[5][6] Marketed as a true story, the film is premised on the Hindutva conspiracy theory of "love jihad",[7] and claims that thousands of Hindu women from Kerala have been converted to Islam and recruited in the Islamic State.[8][9] However, the filmmakers had to accept the addition of two disclaimers — that the figures in the film were inauthentic, and that the film was a "fictionalised" depiction of their minds.[10] The Kerala Story released in theatres on 5 May 2023. With a worldwide gross of ₹303.97 crore (US$36 million), it became the ninth-highest-grossing Hindi film of 2023.[11][12] It was heavily promoted by the incumbent Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which leveraged the film in its campaigning for the Karnataka assembly election.[13][14] However, film critics accorded it overwhelmingly negative reviews, characterising the work as Islamophobic propaganda.[15][16][6] The film has also faced protracted litigation and protests, primarily in Kerala, West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.