With Raazi and Race 3, Bollywood rekindles decades-old affair with Kashmir

While Alia Bhatt’s Raazi was shot in the valley, Salman Khan and Jacqueline Fernandez are currently shooting Race 3 in Sonamarg.

Filmmakers Anurag Kashyap, Meghna Gulzar and Remo D’Souza lead the new Bollywood band that is set to bring the paradise of Kashmir to the silver screen. From Shammi Kapoor and Sharmila Tagore’s iconic Kashmir Ki Kali (1964) to Sunny Deol serenading Amrita Singh in Betaab (1983), Kashmir has long been the Bollywood director’s paradise for film shoots.

Salman Khan, who has shot two films in Kashmir in the past few years, is a local favourite. The actor is currently shooting Race 3 with Jacqueline Fernandez. (Jacqueline Fernandez/Instagram)

In the years after, rising unrest saw filmmakers look for alternatives. In the early 2000s, Vidhu Vinod Chopra returned to the valley for Mission Kashmir (2000), but few followed. Filmmaker Kabir Khan shot the Salman Khan hits Ek Tha Tiger (2012) and Bajrangi Bhaijaan (2015) in the Valley, but had to cancel a schedule of his film Tubelight (2017) in July 2016, after the death of Hizbul Mujahideen operative Burhan Wani that month left the state on the boil.

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A year on, however, Bollywood has rekindled its relationship with strife-torn Kashmir — Meghna Gulzar and Anurag Kashyap shot their upcoming films, Raazi and Manmarziyan there. Neeraj Pandey’s Aiyaary, starring Sidharth Malhotra and Manoj Bajpayee, was also shot in the state.

“I went back to Kashmir after many years for the shoot of Aiyaary,” Bajpayee said. “I was 12 when I went there on a school trip, and all my memories came flooding back.” The actor said the locals treat tourists like gods and feel films shot in their state will encourage more visitors.

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For the residents, Salman Khan is their favourite and they make sure everyone else who comes to shoot there knows as much. Khan and his co-actor Jacqueline Fernandez recently filmed for Remo D’Souza’s action thriller Race 3 in Sonamarg, and were greeted by huge crowds when they met CM Mehbooba Mufti.

Actors too love shooting in Kashmir. Vicky Kaushal, who stars in Raazi, said, “The people were very warm and welcoming and we faced no problems at all.” Kaushal said, “Bajrangi Bhaijaan really made Kashmir quite popular, and my driver started telling me all about Salman’s shoot locations, as he is a big star there.”

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Meghna Gulzar said she visited Kashmir for recces twice before the shoot for Raazi began, and faced no trouble. “As the story is based in Kashmir, it was important for us to shoot there,” she said. “The producers were a little wary, and were unsure of the crew’s safety, but you cannot replicate Kashmir.” The filmmaker said no special security arrangements were made at the shoot locations. “We weren’t escorted by armed police or security personnel. I am glad I got to shoot there.”

Filmmaker Robbie Grewal’s crew is on a recce in the state for John Abraham’s spy drama RAW, while filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt is also in Kashmir for his next, Jalebi. Vidhu Vinod Chopra was in Kashmir in March, shooting a film on Kashmiri Pandits.