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After 33 years, cinema halls back in north Kashmir
After 33 years, cinema is back in north Kashmir as Jammu and Kashmir’s lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday inaugurated multipurpose cinema halls in Baramulla and Handwara. n Baramulla the 100-seat hall was established in erstwhile Sherwani Memorial Hall on the national highway in the heart of the town.
After 33 years, cinema is back in north Kashmir as J&K’s lieutenant governor Manoj Sinha on Saturday inaugurated multipurpose cinema halls in Baramulla and Handwara.
In Baramulla the 100-seat hall was established in erstwhile Sherwani Memorial Hall on the national highway in the heart of the town. The hall is named after Maqbool Sherwani, who was a Kashmiri nationalist leader and close associate of National Conference founder Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah and was killed by Pakistani raiders in 1947. The new cinema hall is just a few meters away from the location of an old cinema, Regina, that was run by a prominent businessman of the town for decades. However, after the emergence of militancy in the early 90s, the cinema closed down. The owners in the late 90s sold the cinema building and now the old cinema has been replaced by a five-storey shopping complex.
Manoj Sinha, who was accompanied by District Development Council chairperson Safina Baig, termed it a momentous day for Baramulla and Handwara towns. “The movie theatres are reflection of growing aspiration of J&K. The facilities at both the locations will also house a cafe, VR, conference and seminar facilities for youth,” said Sinha in a tweet.
The president of the Municipal Council, Baramulla, Umar Kakroo said the opening of cinema in the town is an indication that normalcy has returned to this place. “Film lovers can now come here and enjoy movies,” he added.
Even movie buffs are happy over the opening of cinema but want a full-fledged multiplex. “Here an old hall has been turned into a cinema. In modern times, when people watch films at multiplexes, this cinema won’t attract big crowds,” said Mohammad Aslam, an old movie buff.
The cinema in Baramulla will be run by Jadooz cinema and VR which is running a chain of cinemas across the country. Every day there will be three shows at the cinema hall. Officials said that the film, “Pathan”, will be shown to the audience on the first day.
Rahul Nehra, founder and managing director of Jadooz, said currently they are running four cinema halls in J&K. “We are planning to increase our screens to 10 by the end of this year in Kashmir. Today e-inauguration of Handwara was also done but it will be made commercially open within 10 to 15 days.”
Before the emergence of militancy north Kashmir had seven big cinemas, Regina, (Baramulla) Samad Talkies and Shahkar (Sopore), Hemal (Handwara), which were run by locals while three cinemas were run by Army in Baramulla, Pattan and Uri towns and named after famous generals.
All these cinemas got closed in the early 90s after militants gave threats to owners and people stopped visiting cinema halls, while the old cinemas in north Kashmir have been either converted into shopping complexes or under the occupation of forces. The army has turned its cinema halls into conference halls, while the building of the Uri Army got damaged in the 2005 earthquake. Last year, a multiplex, Inox, was opened in Srinagar which is owned by a Kashmiri Pandit business family from Srinagar.
