Catapulting Jammu into a vibrant Film Ecosystem
By
Col Satish Singh Lalotra
‘The cinema has no boundary; it is a ribbon of dream. — Orson Welles.
The erstwhile state of Jammu & Kashmir, one of the largest princely states and commanding a 21 gun salute during the British Raj days and perched rightly at crown of the sub-continent eulogized everything subtle ranging from its mesmerizing scenic vistas, charming people and a salubrious climate unmatched anywhere this side of the Suez Canal. No doubt the erstwhile state epitomized ‘A ribbon of dream’ and still carries the tag as stated by famous Orson Welles. With its verdant blue mountains ,shimmering lakes & bountiful of nature’s gifts showered upon the region ,Jammu and Kashmir quintessentially qualifies as the paradise on earth with none other area coming in comparison to it by any measure.
Though J&K has etched upon the memory of countless people by its above mentioned qualities, it is essentially Kashmir that is synonymous with the properties of nature partly due to a media blitzkrieg for decades to no end and also due to a large footfall as a consequence to the fact that it occupies a large space in the mindset of the tourists.
Jammu on the other hand, an equally gifted region with bountiful of nature’s gifts has remained in the shadows of its northern half i.e Kashmir. But natural, Kashmir has been the cynosure of all eyes with films too climbing the bandwagon of its beauty.
For decades to no end Kashmir has acted as a veritable magnet for the Bollywood to showcase its talent in all its hues. With the biggest impediment in the form of article 370 having been done away four years back, a very vibrant G-20 meet recently conducted in Srinagar and a drastic improvement in the overall security scenario things never seemed so rosy for activities of such nature to take off with a thunderous roar.
Jammu region as mentioned above, though packed by an equal amount of bounties of nature has been only attracting a miniscule number of film shootings or exposure to the entrainment industry from rest of India.
This age old narrative and cast has to change with the right earnest since the region is no less gifted with countless vistas of scenic beauty, an enviable pool of talent that dates back to the legendary singer late KL Saigal, Om Prakash and the new genre of the likes Vidhyut Jamwal etc. Since new budding players in the offing are ready to break ground with their talent, it is high time that focus be shifted to Jammu region to help the area gain its glory under the sun.
With Jammu and Kashmir setting up its new ‘Film policy’ that aggressively envisions maximizing the potential of both the regions of UT as well as roping in local talents till 2026, it is need of the hour that the region be brought under the cross hairs of big film honchos from all over the country and even abroad to catapult Jammu to its pristine glory.
All over the world masses are besotted with Kashmir; but Jammu is a question mark. In order to make Jammu shine as a huge blob on the ‘Film map’ of the country a very concerted and multi-pronged approach to the issue has to be undertaken which this write up of mine endeavours to do albeit in a small measure.
The issue has to be tackled under the head – identification and development of tourist places with its attendant infrastructure, preparation cum mentoring of young talent at an early stage of their lives, establishment of film studios in the region with liberal grant of financial assistance from the government and private sector, developing cross linkages with regional cinemas and their actors, a robust chain of distributors who without much consideration to the geographical constraints imposed in the region go all out to maximize the outreach of the new films in the remotest part of the region and such like.
The idea to show case the UT as spearheading once again the cine world was the G-20 summit in Srinagar in the month of May 2023 that projected Jammu and Kashmir as an international film shooting destination.
In this meeting participants deliberated upon the importance of ‘film tourism’ and its impact upon the local economy and culture. They unanimously agreed upon the fact that Jammu and Kashmir was the best place to shoot the films.
There are wonderful places like ‘Bani’ in district Kathua that was home to one of the Bollywood movie ‘Googles of Rajesh khanna’ written and directed by son of the soil Sanjay Amar with film artists like Archana Puran singh, Rajesh sharma, Sharib Hashmi, Cherry Mari, Shivang Sehgal, Virnder saxena, Puneet vashista and Sadhna singh etc produced by Subhas Sehgal under the banner of Seghal media and Amar chand motion pictures. Bani at the entrance of UT of Jammu and Kashmir in district Kathua is located at a height of 4200 feet along the river ‘Sewa’ and experiences polar type of climate during the winters.
Going by the moniker ‘Mini Kashmir’ of district Kathua, Bani is still an uncut jewel that needs an urgent chiseling by the local administration in so far as providing the much needed impetus to its road infrastructure, communications ,boarding and lodging facilities are concerned for film shooting sprees to happen uninterrupted.
Bhaderwah, another breathtaking beauty in the region has the distinction of being the place where famous movie Noorie was shot.
The Noorie has Poonam Dhillon and Farooque Sheikh in the lead role. Another Blockbuster movie Janni Dushman was shot mostly in the areas of Chenani, Patnitop, Udhampur etc. Besides, the famour song movie Avtaar was shot along the Vaishnodevi route.
Even non -descript places like Devak bridge near Vijaypur in district Samba had been made immortal by the filming of famous 1965 Dev Anand movie ‘Guide’ with the ever green SD Burman number ‘Wahan kaun hai tera’ with the wandering swami in the background The film ‘Googles of Rajesh Khanna’ by Sanjay Amar had been seminal in its nature since it tried to encompass natural beauty and unique Dogra culture of Jammu region through cinema.
The film was the first of its kind to show case a full-fledged song in Dogri written by Sanjay Amar and presented in Dogra folk style called ‘Geetru’ performed by Khajoor Singh and party.
Nearer Jammu ,Mansar lake that has been the so called ‘Sine quo non ‘ of Dogra land had shot the famous Bollywood movie ‘Hathyara ‘ in the 1970s ,but ever since then the lake has been through a series of flip flops in its overall development eclipsing thus its eminence as a land beckoning art ,culture and entertainment to one and all.
Need is to develop a master plan for the Mansar lake taking the famous temple of ‘Chichi Mata’ into its ambit which is just a stone throw’s away from the former thus imparting a mythological imprint to any Bollywood venture that seeks to happen in this area.
In a similar vein up north, Surinsar, Patnitop, Natha top etc ought to be clubbed into one big tourist circuit with concomitant tourist infra stuffed into their confines so as to make them as much appealing as possible to a film producer or director to come all the way from either Mumbai, Kolkata or Chennai without any second thought with his or her entire entourage.
The UT administration ought to link up with international agencies like Airbnb and the locals to establish homestays in the region for upkeep and a comfortable stay of the film industry people as an overhead to the already lodging and boarding facilities in the area.
The region of Jammu doesn’t have a robust infra for taxi service like the Uber, Routematic, Meru and Ola to cater for a quick ride for the interested parties and tourists to have a glimpse of an ongoing film shooting in a particular area thus spreading its fame far and wide. I suppose the local taxi mafia which is ruling the roost in such places of tourist interest do not let such initiatives grow roots as part of a monopoly.
Such monopolies ought to be ruthlessly cut out to have a seamlessly smooth growth of the so called ‘Ancillary services’ to the overall growth of a film tourism concept that Jammu region so urgently requires.
Moreover Jammu region has traditionally been associated with its twin USPs, the like of which are not found anywhere in the county i.e. being the traditional sword arm of northern India with every second home contributing to the might of the armed forces of the country by sending its sons and daughters into the armed forces and secondly the center of Hindu temples and places of great mythological importance like the famed Vaishno Devi etc.
The film tourism of the UT ought to maximize these two USPs to their hilt and encourage the bigwigs of Bollywood as also from Kolkata and Chennai to make movies on these concepts as part of overall growth of regional cinematic footprint in northern India as also elsewhere.
With more than 300 movies and TV serials been shot in the UT after the administration launched the new film policy, the erstwhile state is set to climb yet higher pulpits of cinematic quotient in the overall frame work of Indian cinema.
Though a hiatus of three decades due to the disturbed security conditions set back the clock of film making in Jammu and Kashmir, the latest pronouncements by the LG after the inauguration of first day shoot of the upcoming TV serial ‘Pashmina’ has been a shot in the arm of film tourism for erstwhile state.
With ‘single window clearance’ gaining impetus in the UT for film making, more than 130 permissions have been given to various producers and production banners for carrying out their creative endeavours as on last year.
The formation of ‘Film development fund (FDF) in the fiscal year 2022-23 in the information dept , with a corpus of 500 crores to be payable in the next 5 years is a big boost for the development of a vibrant film ecosystem in the UT.
It has been given to understand that J&K Film Development Council (JKFDC) will be the single point of contact for supporting the development of this ecosystem and will exclusively oversees the implementation of this policy.
Need is to allocate a fair share of money out of this JKFDC to Jammu region to ensure the region once again stand up on its feet. As Orsen Welles has rightly said—The cinema has no boundary—it is a ribbon of dream.
(The writer is a retired army officer )
