This is one of the “firsts” Lt Governor Manoj Sinha’s administration eagerly sought. Sinha today inaugurated Kashmir’s first multiplex cinema, at the Shivpora area of Srinagar city, opposite Chinar Corps headquarters at Badamibagh.
Sinha quoted poets Shahryar and Faiz Ahmad Faiz but at the same time, he said, his government will not buy peace in Jammu and Kashmir but will establish peace. To a selected audience comprising police officers, and bureaucrats, Sinha said, no innocent will be touched and no guilty will be spared. While Sinha mentioned old cinema halls of Srinagar like Naaz, Regal, Palladium, Sheeraz, which closed in the aftermath of the eruption of the militancy in 1990, Sinha said the multiplex would open cinema culture in Kashmir and it is a sign of changing Jammu and Kashmir.
Without naming previous governments, he said those who were entrusted with the responsibility to raise such an infrastructure in Kashmir preferred to watch movies outside the Valley or outside the country. But they didn’t provide any entertainment avenues for the people of Kashmir, he alleged.
Sinha described August 5, 2019, a historical day for Jammu and Kashmir and claimed it has changed the destiny of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. On August 5, 2019, the BJP government amid military siege, communication blockade and arrest of thousands abrogated Article 370, which would give special status to Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated J&K into two Union Territories. “That day big change has taken place. I must tell you the government in Delhi is not interested in buying peace but it is for establishing peace. I say it with the responsibility that no innocent would be touched and no guilty will be spared,” he added. He says the government is going to give incentives to people to make short films or long films. He says the government would also come up with film city.
Lal Singh Chadda is the first film screened in the multiplex. On the first day, the audience was mostly media men and officials in view of security. While the government says it is going to open cinema halls in every district of the Valley for the entertainment of the people, only the coming months will show whether the move will succeed.
In 1998, Broadway cinema was opened, some distance away from the current multiplex, with the screening of Kareeb. But the cinema was later closed as it didn’t get a response from people. Before the 1990s, Kashmir had a huge tradition of cinema and moving going.
Kashmir’s first film theatre was built in 1932 by Bhai Anant Singh Gauri at Lal Chowk (named after Moscow’s Red Square). Originally named Kashmir Talkies, it was later changed to Palladium, perhaps after the famous theatre at St. Petersberg.
Regal was the next theatre to open in Kashmir, also at Lal Chowk. Built by a Punjabi-speaking family, their progeny Rohit Bal is a leading fashion designer. It downed its shutters after 1990, and is now to be replaced by a shopping mall.
Palladium was at the centre of the history of film viewing in Kashmir. It was the oldest movie hall in north India and would screen Hollywood movies before they were released in Delhi. However, today palladium is a ramshackle structure. Security forces have converted it into a bunker with concertina wires all around it.
