By Priya Ramani
In Naya Kashmir, as it becomes more difficult to express your thoughts or to practice journalism, it also becomes easier to make films—with riders, of course.
The Kashmir Files may have been shot mostly in Mussoorie and Dehradun (the team filmed in Kashmir for a week), but filmmakers have returned in full force to Kashmir after four decades (350 film crews have been permitted to shoot over the last two years, according to one estimate). Though an Inox multiplex opened in Srinagar after 32 years last September to much fanfare, it’s still the lone glitzy wonder in the Valley.
This year will see a steady stream of releases that showcase Kashmir. Prominent among these are Meghna Gulzar’s Sam Bahadur, about Field Marshal Sam Manekshaw, who had a ringside seat during Kashmir’s accession to India; Rajkumar Hirani’s Shah Rukh Khan-starrer Dunki; and Telugu romantic comedy Kushi starring Vijay Deverakonda and Samantha Ruth Prabhu.
Pathaan director Siddharth Anand’s next—Fighter—starring Deepika Padukone and Hrithik Roshan, is scheduled to release in January 2024 and SonyLIV has announced that Onir will direct an eight-part series on the Pulwama terror attack. “These days lots of films are being made around the army and military heroes,” says Khawar Jamsheed, a line producer who has helped filmmakers organise shoots in Kashmir since 2010, when he got a break with Imtiaz Ali’s Rockstar.
Even off-centre filmmakers such as Tejas Vijay Deoskar and Sudhir Mishra, have zeroed in on the troubled Union Territory. Kashmiri filmmaker Danish Renzu’s Songs of Paradise, about the legendary Raj Begum, the first female singer at Radio Kashmir, is now in post-production.
“Things have changed a lot from when I shot Half Widow in 2016,” says Renzu. “Srinagar is more open and friendly to film production … The scene in Kashmir is very different now, very open and welcoming.”
Though J&K’s 2021 film policy offers many incentives—such as free security and quick police clearances—filmmakers who seek permission to shoot must sign a declaration on official letterhead confirming that their work will not include anything inappropriate, including “defamation of the state” and “false claim”. They must submit a copy of the script/screenplay too.
Who knows if a film that tackles the subject of ‘half widows’ would even get permission to be made under the new rules? The term was coined for those Kashmiri women who have no idea if their husbands, detained by security personnel, are dead or alive.
“The films produced, to patronize the feeling of “One Nation, Best Nation” (Ek Bharat Shresth Bharat), and on certain other themes” are also eligible for subsidies, the film policy states.
In a video shared on Twitter by the Jammu & Kashmir Directorate of Information and Public Relations, director Karan Johar, who visited Kashmir after 11 years earlier this year, said he wished to come back every year.
After Johar (Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahaani) and Sameer Vidwans (Satyaprem Ki Katha) shot one key song for their respective movies in Kashmir, Jamsheed predicts that the Kashmir song is likely to be the next trend…
This story was originally published in bqprime.com. Read the full story here