By and large Indian Army has achieved its aim on curbing the militancy and facilitating the smooth functioning of government machineries. Now, the government and its various departments needs to actively pitch into integrate the people, centre of gravity, with mainland India. One such dimension which can work wonders in bringing joy to the faces of people of Kashmir is reopening of cinema halls across Kashmir. Nothing can be more soothing to your eyes than watching Kashmiri families moving out intrepidly to cinema halls and enjoying movie and having quality time with their loved ones. Recently, the government of J&K has taken the initiative to reopen the closed cinema halls in the valley. The government is planning to revive the cinema halls that were closed for a long time. A generation has been deprived o f the pleasure of watching movieson big screen owing to the absence of cinema halls which are quite common in other parts of country.It is very fascinating to apprehend sometimes, whether it is the cinema that are moulding the society or vice versa. It is easier to see our trouble, approaches, errors and fortes in films than it is to figure out by ourselves. It helps us to embrace the change when our ideologies and beliefs are logically challenged.

Cinema in valley has its own history. For its exquisite and picture beauty,Kashmir was always Bollywood’s favourite spot as it has always painted the silver-screen with ideas of love, splendour and fascination. Many got attracted to the breathtaking beauty of Kashmir depicted on screen including Ratan Tata who got mesmerised by movieJ unglee (1961) to visit Kashmir along with 17 of his college friends. Betaab, a 1980 movie, was shot in a valley in Pahalgam which later named on the film as the Betaab Valley.
In 1989, amongst rising wave of armed insurgency, a militant outfit, AllahTigers, issued a warning to the owners of liquors hops and cinema halls to immediately shut down their business in Kashmir. The outfit’s chief, ‘Air Marshal NoorKhan’,attacked, seized and destroy liquor shops and cinema halls.Due to panic and serious security threat,all the cinema halls were closed down. Few years later J&K Govt decided to give monetary benefits to owners for reopening their cinema halls. The government was desperate with the idea of reopening of the cinema halls as symbol of Kashmir’s return to normalcy.Three cinema halls -the Broadway, the Neelam and the Regal reopened though for a brief time. The reopening of the cinema halls did not brought much enthusiasm among people. They were still scared of visiting cinema despite heavy security arrangements. On 24 September 1999, the Regal Cinema reopened with the Sunny Deol and Mahima Chowdhary starrer, ‘‘Pyar Koyi Khel Nahi’’ when a grenade was thrown killing atleast one and injuring many. The hall downed its shutter and later on was converted into a shopping complex.
TheBroadway Cinema located in a high security zone met with same destiny and was converted into a commercial complex there after.For short period of time Neelam Cinema remained functional but closed down due to civil unrest . Various attempts were made by local government but Hurriyat leader always opposed it despite Saudi Arabia ( a Muslim dominant country ) opening cinema for its people. Hurriyat leaders believed opening of cinema will be seen as return of normalcy in the valley and even criticised Saudi leaders for doing that.
On 5 August 2021, Film policy of UT of J&K was approved by the Administrative Council led by the Lieutenant Governor ManojSinha. It was a grand launch in the presence of Bollywood actor Amir Khan and director RajKumar Hirani besides others at SKICC. The aim was to make J&K a unique film destination.The film policy offers a wide range of subsidies.
Kashmir has huge talent and creativity under its belt which can be show cased by developing regional fim industry. Till 1980s, Hindi cinema show cased Kashmir as the ideal destination to a romantic song where the actor/actresses of a film could sing around the picturesque trees, show casing heavenly and enchanting beauty of Kashmir.Film policy will nodoubt help the Union Territory to become a popular film destination and revitalize the cinema culture in valley but no organised and structured roadmap has been laid for growth of regional cinema. Regional cinema play a pivotal role in showcasing our nation on the global stage for their realistic and imaginative film making. The govt needs to provide due focus on developing infrastructure and policy for regional cinema also as this will further accelerate the revival of cinema culture in the valley and will create opportunities for youths of Kashmir who wants to pursue career in arts & crafts, theatres and film making spectrum. It will play a significant role in generating employment and embolden the thought of normalcy.
In 2017 when valley was creeping to normalcy promotional film was released by J&K tourism titled ‘Kashmir: The warmest place on earth’.The movie show cased the intelligibility, humbleness and hospitality of the common people of Kashmir which were hugely admired around the globe.
Revival of cinemain the valley will also challenge the social taboos of the society. For a very long time, Kashmiri people did not openly welcome youth visiting cinema halls. Being Muslim dominant society, traditional believes of Islam acted as an impediment in the development of this culture in the society in the past, parents looking for marriage of their daughter used to satisfy themselves that the expected groom was not a cinema o ra hotel going guy. A woman visiting a cinema hall was viewd in bad light. During 1940s, only a few were allowed to go for cinema. Gradually, the number of college going girls and working women visiting cinema halls post 1970s ladies at a cinema hall was a routine occurence.
Cinema holds immense educative and informative values for the society. Basic subjects like moral duties, need for hygiene, civil sense, respect for women can easily be depicted through movies. It has the ability to act as are formative instrument and highlight the evils existingin the society.Since government was ocuupied in addressing numerous other important issues in the valley, revival of cinema had been given least precedence. But as situation in the Valley is stablising, added impetus is required to revive the culture of cinema through reopening of cinema halls which will ratify the normalcy in valley.