The Uttarakhand government on Monday mooted the idea of creating a “photography point”, named after the film Kedarnath’s lead actor, late Sushant Singh Rajput, triggering objections from the Congress.
The government said late actor’s fans among devotees and tourists visiting Kedarnath may have their photographs shot at this point in Kedarnath, but the Congress said that establishing such a location at a religious place will be improper.
Uttarakhand Tourism Minister Satpal Maharaj said the state’s Tourism Department has been asked to make a scheme on this issue. “I have mooted the idea of establishing a photography point in Kedarnath after Rajput who had made a good film over the place. We want to pay tributes to him by installing his photograph here,” the minister told reporters.
The minister also said he has asked his department to invite Bollywood filmmakers to explore the opportunity of making films in Uttarakhand as it would promote tourism in the state.
Based on the 2013 tragic deluge in Kedarnath, the film Kedarnath, starring Rajput and Soha Ali Khan, was made in 2018 and was largely shot in Kedarnath and neighbouring areas. In this film, Rajput had played the role of a person carrying devotees to the shrine in a chair strapped to his back.
Congress general secretary and Uttarkhand’s former Chief Minister Harish Rawat objected to the minister’s proposal to create a “memory point” for a human being in a religious place as “improper”.
"What is the logic of having a man’s memory point in a place like Kedarnath, the abode of Lord Shiva?" Rawat asked. "What do you want to do by creating such a point at a place where Lord Kedar and Lord Badrinath reside?” he further asked.
Rawat said after snowfalls, Kedarnath turns into a magnificent place with a slew of possibilities to promote tourism. “On a simple study of Kedarnath during my tenure as the state's chief minister, I found endless tourism possibilities there but on a deeper meditation, I realised that it is a spiritual place with its unique traditional moorings and I cannot tinker with it,” he said.
(With PTI inputs)
