September 30, 2022, was an exciting day for broadcast journalist Pervez Butt. He was going to watch directors Pushkar-Gayathri's Hindi remake of Vikram Vedha at the newly opened INOX in Srinagar - he had last seen a movie in a cinema hall in Kashmir in 1999.
After cinema halls in Kashmir closed down in the 1990s, Butt says he would travel outside J&K to watch movies. An obvious nuisance.
“The cinema-watching experience in Kashmir was something I was badly missing. For the first time in 23 years, I watched a movie on the big screen with my colleagues,” says Butt, now 48. “It was a dream come true and emotional moment to be in a cinema hall here after two decades.” ***
Ten cinema halls in Srinagar, including Firdous, Sheeraz, Khayam, Naaz, Neelum, Shah, Broadway, Regal and Palladium, were forced to close one after the other following the insurgency in 1989. Most cinema halls were converted into security camps.
“In 1989, blasts in the cinema were a routine thing. I was one among a few people who would go to cinemas and watch movies,” says Butt who remembers paying Rs 2 for the ticket then.
“One day Mithun’s Ilaaka film was being screened in Shah cinema in Srinagar’s Qamarwari area when rumours spread that militants had lobbed a grenade at the cinema. In the middle of the movie, everyone escaped in fear. But the rumour was later found to be just that: a rumour,” Butt adds.
In 1996, the Farooq Abdullah-led government attempted to reopen two cinema halls—Broadway and Neelam—but the response was poor.
Three years later, in 1999, J&K government attempted to reopen Regal theatre in Srinagar’s Lal Chowk, but again militants lobbed a grenade. On the first day of reopening on September 24, 1999, a civilian was killed and 12 others injured in the bombing.
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On September 20, 2022, as Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha inaugurated the INOX theatre in Srinagar’s high security Shivpora area, two Kashmiri words rolled on the big screen on inauguration day: ‘Myoun Cinema’ (My Cinema).
Vijay Dhar, the owner of the multiplex who also runs Delhi Public School at Athwajan Srinagar, used to own the iconic Broadway cinema at the same spot. Dhar says his ambition with respect to the new INOX was simply to give the people of Srinagar what people in cities and towns across India take for granted: the chance to catch a movie at a theatre near them.
Tickets at the Kashmir INOX go for Rs 180-200 a piece. If you go there today, you can choose to see one of five films: Vikram Vedha, Kantara, Top Gun Maverick, Doctor G, Bullet Train.
There's broader push for cinema in the Union Territory, too. The J&K government has said it is now targeting to establish 100-seat cinema halls under mission youth in every district of J&K.
In August 2021, the J&K government had also unveiled a new Film Policy with incentives to encourage local youth to take up film-making as a career. The government has also identified the land for developing Film City in the region.
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Dhar's multiplex is Kashmir's first multiplex for obvious reasons. Back when theatres were closed down in Kashmir in the 1990s, multiplexes were just starting to make an appearance in Delhi and Mumbai. Until then, single-screen theatres like Dhar's Broadway Cinema were where India experienced larger-than-life reel stories.
The first films to run at Dhar's 520-seat INOX in Srinagar were Laal Singh Chaddha, the Hindi remake of Forrest Gump starring Aamir Khan, followed by Vikram Vedha, starring Hrithik Roshan, Saif Ali Khan and Shraddha Srinath.
Laal Singh Chaddha, which had released in other parts of India a month prior, failed to bring in the audience here as well. Vikram Vedha, which has been running here three weeks, is still going strong, according to Vikas Dhar, Vijay's son and managing director of Taksal Hospitality Private Limited, which owns the multiplex.
Hindi films have largely fared poorly in theatres this year. This Friday, box office collections from new Hindi films, including the Kannada film Kantara dubbed in Hindi, hit a low of Rs 5 crore. It's not surprising then that a new multiplex opening at a time when some much-anticipated films have also crashed out quickly, is also struggling to find the right mix of films to offer. ***
For some, like Aaqib Dar, 25, and Abu Huraira, 12, the INOX presents their first opportunity to go to the movies in Kashmir. “I have seen movies on TV and mobiles but watching a movie in cinema is a different experience,” says Dar.
Vikas Dhar tells Moneycontrol that by the end of Week 1, more than 700 people had booked tickets at the Shivpora INOX. By the end of Week 3, the number had crossed 1,000.
Reacting to the opening of the multiplex, senior police officer Imtiyaz Hussain had tweeted: “Some things are worth fighting for. It is not just cinema back in Kashmir, but a momentous turning point in history. #INOX in Srinagar.”
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