Aamir Khan, the Hindi actor, and Rajkumar Hirani, the Hindi filmmaker, attended Jammu & Kashmir’s New Film Policy launch event in Srinagar on Thursday along with Jammu & Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha and other dignitaries.
Taking to Twitter, Sinha posted a few photos from the event and wrote that the new film policy “will transform Jammu Kashmir into the most preferred destination for the Entertainment Industry, reviving J&K’s halcyon days of being a cinematographer’s delight and bringing back the Golden Era of film shooting in J&K.”
He further tweeted that the government has set up a single-window clearance mechanism and prepared equipment, location and talent directories. Apart from these, there will also be fiscal incentives for filming in J&K, he said, adding that the new policy aims at “maximising the potential of promising local talent and creating livelihood opportunities for many.”
A report in The New Indian Express quoted Sinha saying the state has “a manpower of more than 1500 such trained artists.” He further added, “Besides, there are hundreds of unexplored places, which have been left unattended by filmmakers and we are developing those potential places with the requisite facilities and teams of the best local artists. The new film policy will also give a fillip to the film tourism sector, thus opening up more employment avenues for the locals.”
Sinha also tweeted that producer Mahaveer Jain has announced that his next film will be shot in J&K. Hirani too will shoot a web series in the region, he added.
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Earlier, filmmakers like Ekta Kapoor, Imtiaz Ali, Nitesh Tiwari, and Dinesh Vijan had met with Sinha in order to discuss how best to promote Jammu and Kashmir as a filming destination. Aamir Khan and his ex-wife producer Kiran Rao had also met Sinha to discuss the new film policy.
Khan had recently been shooting a schedule of his upcoming film Laal Singh Chaddha in Srinagar. The actor and the film’s crew had earlier filmed a portion in Ladakh, where they were accused of littering.