Mufti makes son
cinematographer, wants Salman to shoot in Kashmir, but doesn’t restore cinema
Ahmed Ali Fayyaz
_______
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.
END
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