The Supreme Court on Thursday again refused to consider a plea against the The Kerala Story, saying that the petitioner must think about the “money sunk” into the project by the makers of the film and the labour put in by the actors, reported The Hindu.

“You must be very careful about staying films,” Chief Justice DY Chandrachud said. “The market will decide if it [the film] is not up to the mark.”

Directed by Sudipto Sen, The Kerala Story claims to depict the lives of women from the state who had been converted to Islam and recruited by the Islamic State terrorist group. It was released on Friday.

Also read: ‘The Kerala Story’ review: All about Islamophobia

Initially, the filmmakers claimed that 32,000 women from Kerala had joined the Islamic State but when they were asked to provide evidence, they altered the trailer to say that the movie was a “compilation of the true stories of three young girls”.

On Tuesday, a Supreme Court bench of Justices KM Joseph and BV Nagarathna, which is hearing a group of petitions seeking action against instances of hate speech, had expressed disinclination to consider an interlocutory application seeking a stay on the release of the film. The judges had urged the petitioners to approach the High Court.

Subsequently, a Public Interest Litigation was moved in the Kerala High Court challenging the certificate granted to the movie by the censor board, according to PTI. On Friday a division bench refused to stay the screening of the film reported The Indian Express.

It also rejected a petition demanding that the ‘A’ certification by the Central Board of Film Certification, under which the film can be shown to adults, be declared illegal.

The censor board in its counter affidavit had told the High Court that the film does not claim to be accurate account of events, reported the newspaper. It also told the court that the film is inspired by true incidents as narrated in video-recorded testimonials of victims and their families.