Mufti makes son cinematographer, wants Salman to shoot in Kashmir, but doesn’t restore cinema

Ahmed Ali Fayyaz

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SRINAGAR, May  17: In the midst of his shooting for Kabir Khan's 'Bajrangi Bhaijaan' at Sonmarg on Sunday, Bollywood icon Salman Khan expressed his anguish over the fact that successive governments in Jammu and Kashmir had not made even a single theatre operational in the strife-torn Kashmir valley in the last 25 years.

Convicted by a trial court with five years of imprisonment in an alleged matter of rash and negligent driving but released on bail by High Court, Salman has returned to the Valley last week to complete his shooting schedules. After extensive filming in Pahalgam and other areas of Anantnag district, Salman has been busy with acting on the snowcapped Zoji La and the world famous tourist resort of Sonmarg on Srinagar-Leh Highway.

Salman, who has millions of his enthusiastic fans in J&K like other Indian States, said that he was "surprised" over the fact that not one of the theatres had resumed screening of films in Kashmir. He said it was surprising that the Kashmiris had been watching Bollywood films only through pirated DVDs on their laptops and computers. According to the top actor, it was "unfortunate" that the people of Kashmir had no access to 70 mm screens and multiplexes for entertainment.

All praise for the love and hospitality he enjoyed during his 40 days of shooting in Kashmir, Salman said he would like the Kashmiris to enjoy Bajrangi Bhaijaan on the big screen. The film is scheduled fir all-India release around Eid-ul-Fitr, two months from now. He said he was excited over the way his Kashmiri fans, including a poor elderly woman, had prayed for his bail.

Flanked by director Kabir Khan, Salman said Kashmir would be his first preference whenever he would need picturesque landscape in his films. He said he had his roots in Jammu and Kashmir as his maternal grand father hailed from Jammu region of the state.

Kabir Khan said he enjoyed shooting in Kashmir. He said that he would like to focus on Kashmir in his upcoming movies as well. "There is lot more that needs to be done so that Bollywood would make Kashmir its prime destination", Kabir said and emphasised on better Internet connectivity and road communication.

All the 15 theatres in Kashmir were closed down by the operators in the wake of threats from two militant outfits Hizbullah and Allah Tigers besides a sustained campaign by Asiya Andrabi's Dukhtaraan-e-Millat on December 31, 1989. Later, Farooq Abdullah's government reopened Broadway, Neelam and Regal cinemas in 1997-2000. However, Regal was shut within a day after one person died and over a dizen cine-goers were injured in a grenade attack. Subsequently both Neelam and Broadway too shut business in the wake of militant threats.

Claiming to be a supporter of Bollywood’s shooting films in Kashmir, Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was recently in Mumbai to woo eminent producers, directors and actors to resume business in the Valley. In the pre-militancy halcyon days, Kashmir used to be a great attraction for Bollywood. Hundreds of the top popular films had been shot in the Valley.

From Vidhu Vinod Chopra’s “Mission Kashmir”, in which Preity Zinta played a lead role to Kabir Khan’s Bajrangi Bhaijan, over 30 films were shot in Kashmir during last 20 years. Vishal Bhardwaj’s “Haider” was almost entirely filmed in the Valley.

Interestingly, Chief Minister Mufti Sayeed’s only son Tassaduq has chosen film as his career after he obtained a degree in cinematography from an American school. He worked as cinematographer in Bhardwaj’s “Omkara” which was shot in different Indian States but not in Kashmir.

Most of the people associated with film and television productions in Kashmir believe that head of the PDP-BJP government, Mufti would never like to offend militants and separatists by restoring cinema as it had become an indicator of turmoil.

“Screening films and opening cinema could be seen as an end to militancy and return of peace. A CM like Mufti can’t be expected to give an affront to the separatists and their masters in Pakistan”, an eminent producer told State Times. “He just wants them shoot, not to screen their films”. The producer pointed out that all the “pro-separatist intellectuals”, including the man who later worked as co-writer of Bhardwaj’s “Haider”, had joined hands to sabotage the organisers’ plan of holding a literary festival in Kashmir. “They invariably contended that it could be interpreted as an indicator of normality”, he added.

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