Reclaiming Kashmir’s Spotlight

The inauguration of the first International Film Festival of Jammu & Kashmir at Srinagar's SKICC was, by any measure, a moment worth savouring. Chief Minister Omar Abdullah's declaration that Kashmir is "open, safe, vibrant, and eager to welcome your crews" was more than ceremonial rhetoric - it was a deliberate signal to a film industry that once considered the Valley its most cherished address and then, for nearly four decades, could not. There was a time when Kashmir did not need to bid for Bollywood's attention. It was the destination. ShammiKapoor's snow-drenched abandon in Gulmarg, Sharmila Tagore framed against the stillness of Dal Lake, the young romance of Rishi Kapoor and Dimple Kapadia immortalised at what came to be known as the Bobby Hut, and the sweeping vistas of Betaab Valley that lent an entire location its cinematic name - these were not incidental backdrops. They were co-authors of the story. Yash Chopra did not merely shoot in Kashmir; he built a visual grammar around it, one that shaped how generations of Indians imagined romance, freedom and beauty itself.

Then came the turmoil, and the cameras stopped. Nearly forty years is not a pause; it is a generational gap. In this long prevailing vacuum, the world of filmmaking itself was transformed. Budgets ballooned. Filmmaking is no more passion but a full-fledged business. Producers now chase never-before-seen visual spectacle across continents.. Switzerland, New Zealand, and increasingly domestic rivals like Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand have built exactly what Kashmir once took for granted: seamless permissions, ready infrastructure, and trained crews on tap. Kashmir is no longer the only exquisite frame in the album; it is one among many, and it must now compete rather than simply be chosen.

This is why a film festival, however well-mounted, must be understood for what it is: an opening handshake, not a homecoming. It restores confidence by putting producers and directors physically back on the ground, letting them see ordinary civic life rather than headlines. It offers masterclasses and screenings that can quietly link Mumbai studios with local talent. These are genuine, necessary functions. But a festival does not build a sound stage, train a lighting technician, or guarantee that a shoot scheduled for December will not be stranded by a landslide-shut highway.

The uncomfortable arithmetic is this: Kashmir today does not have even ten cinema halls of its own. A region seeking to reclaim its place as India's premier shooting destination cannot do so while its own audiences have nowhere to watch the films made in their backyard. That is not a footnote - it is the bottleneck that best captures how much ground remains to be covered. The Government's instincts, to its credit, are pointed in the right direction. A single-window clearance system, production subsidies tied to local spending, and an online portal for location approvals are exactly the kind of institutional scaffolding that was missing for decades. But intent must now translate into speed - clearances measured in days, not months, and genuine coordination between forests, archaeology, police and municipal authorities, so that a producer's first experience of the new Kashmir is efficiency, not paperwork.

Equally important is a shift in imagination. Dal Lake and Gulmarg, however beloved, are no longer novel to a generation raised on limitless visual choice. The Chenab region, PirPanjal, and the accessible, evergreen stretches of Jammu deserve equal billing, not as an afterthought to Kashmir but as co-equal frontiers waiting to be discovered on camera. Small showreels of unexplored sites, freely available to production houses, would do more for revival than another postcard of Gulmarg ever could.

There is also symbolism worth borrowing. If a Swiss lake can be named after Yash Chopra in gratitude for decades of cinematic promotion, Jammu & Kashmir loses nothing by honouring, in stone and signage, the directors and actors who once made it cinema's address of choice. Such gestures cost little and rebuild trust in ways policy documents cannot. The festival has, undeniably, set something in motion. An expanding OTT ecosystem alongside traditional cinema will embrace the offerings; only time can tell. The kick-start has been given. The destination is still some distance away.