The Jammu and Kashmir government’s new Film Policy 2021 is aiming to bring Kashmir’s golden era back on the 70 mm screen. The cinemas in the valley were closed since the 1990s after the outbreak of militancy.
The much-awaited J&K Film Policy was launched by J&K Lt. Governor Manoj Sinha on August 5 last month. “In the present times, television and other means of entertainment are vying with films to grab the attention of viewers. This has resulted in a sharp fall in the number of filmgoers which has forced the closure of the cinema halls, and many existing cinema halls are on the verge of closure. To bring back the public into the cinema halls it is imperative to have high-grade facilities in film screening halls. The modern cinema theatre should be able to provide a unique experience which otherwise is not available while watching movies at home,” reads the policy document.
The authorities will improve and overhaul the cinema halls. However, the government said that they would also promote establishing multiplexes in the valley.
Notably, there were 15 active cinema halls in Kashmir in the 1980s of which 9 were in Srinagar. The most famous were Broadway, Regal, Neelam, Paladaium, Firdaus, Shiraz, Khayam, Naaz, Shah in Srinagar. Now, most of them have been turned into camps for security forces, while others have been turned into hotels and even a hospital.
