A multi-screen cinema hall yesterday opened in the main city of Indian-controlled Kashmir for the first time in 14 years, as the government pushes to showcase normalcy in the disputed region that was brought under India’s direct rule three years ago.
Decades of deadly conflict, bombings and a brutal Indian counterinsurgency campaign have turned people away from cinemas, and only about a dozen viewers lined up for the first morning show, the Bollywood action movie Vikram Vedha.
The 520-seat hall with three screens opened under elaborate security in Srinagar’s high security zone, which also houses India’s military regional headquarters.
Photo: AP
“There are different viewpoints about [cinema], but I think it’s a good thing,” said moviegoer Faheem, who gave only one name. “It’s a sign of progress.”
Others at the show declined to comment.
The afternoon and evening shows had less than 10 percent occupancy yesterday, according to India’s premier movie booking Web site in.bookmyshow.com.
The multiplex was officially inaugurated on Sept. 20 by Kashmiri Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha. The cinema is part of Indian multiplex chain Inox in partnership with a Kashmiri businessman.
‘PROPAGANDA VEHICLE’
After Kashmiri militants rose up against Indian rule in 1989, launching a bloody insurgency that was met with a brutal response by Indian troops, the once-thriving city of Srinagar wilted.
The city’s eight privately owned movie theaters closed on the orders of rebels, who said that India’s film industry was a propaganda vehicle for its cultural invasion and anti-Islamic.
In the early 1990s, government forces converted most of the city’s theaters into makeshift security camps, detention centers or interrogation camps. Soon, places where audiences thronged to see Bollywood blockbusters became feared buildings, where witnesses said that torture was commonplace.
However, three cinema halls, backed by government financial assistance, reopened in 1999 amid an official push to project an idea that life had returned to normal in Kashmir.
Soon after, a bombing outside one hall in the heart of Srinagar killed a civilian and wounded many others, and officials shut it again.
Weary Kashmiris largely stayed away, and the other hall locked its doors within a year. One theater, the Neelam, stuck it out until 2008.
Officials said the government is planning to establish cinemas in every district of the region, where tens of thousands have been killed in armed conflict since 1989.
Last month, Sinha also inaugurated two multipurpose halls in the southern districts of Shopian and Pulwama, considered hotbeds of armed rebellion.
“The government is committed to change perceptions about Jammu and Kashmir, and we know people want entertainment and they want to watch movies,” Sinha told reporters at the inauguration.
In 2019, India revoked the region’s semi-autonomy and brought it under direct control, putting Kashmir under a severe security and communication lockdown.
The region has remained on edge ever since as authorities also put in place a slew of new laws, which critics and many residents fear could change the region’s demographics.
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