Bollywood actress Adah Sharma is setting the record blazing after The Kerala Story snagged two National Film Awards, bravely confronting critics whose accusations of political bias threaten to overshadow her film’s intent.
Speaking in an exclusive to Hindustan Times, Adah steered a daring narrative, one that pivots away from politics and zeroes in on stark, haunting truth. She said, “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.”
Adah went on to deliver a stinging rebuke to the backlash, especially criticisms targeting the film’s award sweep. “If telling the truth is being shameful, then I don’t mind being shameless. I have no shame in saying I am anti-terrorism,” she declared. “People who are calling it shameful, I think it has hit a nerve, and I don’t think nerves are hit by lies.”
Despite efforts to house the film within the realm of political discourse, Adah maintains The Kerala Story is grounded in real trauma, “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.”