Last week Kashmir was yet again in the news for a good reason. The Bollywood crew and the top star King Khan was shooting for his upcoming movie Dunki. Bollywood had returned Kashmir almost a decade back after it had snapped its relations with the valley due to an insurgency outbreak in early 1990s.
However, only fewer top stars turned up though small production houses continuously visited the valley to shoot. Kashmir is offering an alternative to Europe to bollywood and saves them substantial budget. That is why small production houses would turn up to Kashmir and big stars would still fly to European countries.
Now with the arrival of Shahrukh Khan and shooting across places especially Pulwama known as the hotbed of militancy earlier, the message across the board travelled to peace. In Pulwama villages Khan and his costar Tapsi Panu shot in the fields with an average security around.
There was no threat and the villages which were literally under the grip of militancy witnessed massive crowds cheering the bollywood crew. Things have changed progressively and people have also changed their mindset.
Changes are accepted and peace is appreciated. People of Kashmir are gradually understanding the importance of peace and encouraging development that they hope may bring a new dawn of development in the valley to fight out alarming unemployment levels and ever decreasing socioeconomic indicators.
The militancy has tremendously gone down and official estimates suggest that less than 50 militants across the valley are operating, the lowest ever. Now the shift of the government seems on development which is highly encouraging.
The government must focus more on Bollywood and encourage it to visit Kashmir. The Bollywood won’t only help to build the economy of Kashmir; however, it will also serve as an ambassador of peace in the region and world and help to promote tourism.
