Kainaat Mushtaq
SRINAGAR: Shooting has broken out again in troubled Kashmir valley, but this time the canisters contain celluloid, not gunpowder.
Stars from “Bollywood,” India’s active Bombay-based film industry, have returned to sing and dance against a backdrop of snow-capped peaks, encouraging the authorities who insist that guerrilla violence is now under control. So have TV crews.
“I have visited many places in the world, but Kashmir is so beautiful. It’s breathtaking,” says a Bombay actress Rajni Patel, on the sets of a TV serial at the picturesque Harwan.
Reports suggest that some film and soap producers have already completed shooting in Kashmir while others are in pipeline.
The latest to be shot in the valley is the TV serial Mahabharata, based on a Sanskrit epic narrating the Kurukshetra War and the fates of the Kauravas and the Pandava princes.
Also a Chandigarh-based crew last month completed their shooting in Kashmir.
Last year Ranbir Kapoor and Deepak Padukone starrer Yeh Jawani Hai Deewani was extensively shot in famed ski resort of Gulmarg and Pahalgam. It was Ranbir’s second film to be shot in Kashmir after Rockstar. The Bollywood blockbuster Jab Tak hai Jaan was also shot last year.
The filming has brought back memories of the 1960s, when romances set in the Jammu and Kashmir province were a staple for Bombay moviemakers aiming for box office success.
Residents of the picturesque Himalayan region also were happy to see cameras whirl once again in the mountainous area more associated with guns and violence than romance.
Since a bloody separatist rebellion erupted in 1990, film crews have avoided the area, leaving moviegoers and directors to dream of motion pictures waiting to be made in the alpine region.
Romancing the valley
A generation of Indians has grown up seeing Bollywood stars romancing in shikaras (small Kashmiri boats) floating on blue lakes amid pine forests and icy fields.
Orchards and tall flaming-red chinar trees added to heady plots.
A senior state tourism official said Kashmir provided locations for more than half of all Bombay movies made before the 23-year-old separatist insurgency, which has claimed more than 50,000 lives.
But it was all shattered when tourists stopped flowing in, and houseboats on Srinagar’s famous Dal Lake went begging for customers after simmering discontent against New Delhi’s rule turned into rebellion in 1989.
The rebellion also put a stop to Bollywood’s romance with the region until the crew for “Mere Apne” (My Own), “Mission Kashmir” descended on Srinagar, summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.
But now domestic, with violence having waned considerably, tourists are flocking in tens of thousands to Kashmir valley.
On location in Harwan, cast members appeared relaxed and comfortable with their surroundings, seemingly unaware that there are still militant attacks and people are still being killed in incidents involving guerrillas and security forces in the region.
Hopes for the future
Making movies in Kashmir costs about 100 times less than shooting outside India, another tourism official said.
But, since the trouble began, Indian filmmakers have preferred to shoot outside the Kashmir valley, often in European locations that look like Kashmir.
A movie set for “Henna” was shot in Austria. The national award-winning “Roja,” about the Kashmir problem itself, also was filmed outside the valley, and moviemaker Muzaffar Ali faced problems in a half-made film after the state denied permission for more shooting in Kashmir.
Tourism officials in Kashmir are now hopeful of getting things back to being as they were.
“We are sure it will pick up and get more revenue for the state, but a collective effort is needed.”
