Forty-five years after its last commercial release, Kashmir gets another nationwide commercial feature in Hussein Khan's upcoming drug drama, starring Mir Sarwar
Sarwar (in a still from the film) first met Khan on Facebook
It was in 1993 that Hussein Khan first came to Mumbai from Kashmir to become an actor. While he pursued that dream for six years, nothing ever quite fell in place. Now, Khan is back in the city, waiting for his film to release next week — his directorial debut Kashmir Daily. The film will also be the first to emerge out of Kashmir in the last 45 years — the last Kashmiri production that found a nationwide release was Mainz Raat in 1964.
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Filmmaker Hussein Khan. PIC/Shadab Khan
Khan's film, which discusses drug abuse in the Valley, took three-and-a-half years to get made. But, that was the easiest bit. Finding a release took another one-and-a-half years. When he returned to the Valley in 1999, Hussein started his own television channel, called Vadi Television. "During my quest to become an actor, I realised that working behind-the-camera interested me more. I started my own local TV channel, but realised I was not making any real difference, especially due to the political climate there.
So, I thought why not tell these stories through fiction?" That Kashmir has not had a single functional movie theatre in 30 years, posed an insurmountable problem. "I connected with several people to get funding for my film, and they all had one question for me — where will you show it? To which, I had no answer," he says. Hussein then shared a post on Facebook, asking a question: Where does our Kashmir film industry stand? "There were numerous replies to that post, people had many views to share. One of the responses came from my lead actor, Mir Sarwar. We seemed to share similar interests.
He suggested that we meet, he fixed a venue and a time, invited several delegates from Kashmir to the forum. When I reached the spot, I found myself to be the only one there, besides Mir, of course. The message was clear — no one wanted to get involved, beyond the Facebook post at least." And, that is the story of how Khan found his lead actor, Sarwar who plays the character of a journalist who is investigating a drug problem. Using some capital from an ad agency he runs on the side, Khan set the ball rolling. He also borrowed money from friends and relatives. "I have still not calculated the exact amount that has been spent in making the film — I think it is around R65 lakhs." The cast and crew comprised not more than 25 members. "Sometimes the actors and I would double up as technicians on set," Khan says, adding, "I was never sure I would complete the film. But I kept at it."
Initially, he had not imagined that the film would, some day, cross the borders of Kashmir. "I wanted to show the film in Kashmir, but private auditoriums demanded high prices. So, I approached the tourism department, which helped me book the Sher-E-Kashmir International Communication Hall in Srinagar, where I screened the film for two days, two shows each day. It was ticketed, but priced moderately. The film got glowing responses, not a lot of money, but it was enough for me to dream of taking it nationwide." Khan is grateful to PVR's Vkaao initiative which is helping him get a release.
Khan feels the portrayal of Kashmir in feature films is exaggerated. "Yes, there is turmoil, but is life as gruesome as is shown? No. Ask any tourist who visits. I think the media and filmmakers need to be more responsible before they flash headlines like: Kashmir is burning." Why drug abuse, as a subject? "I did not want to make one more film on terrorism. Besides, drug abuse, often induced by unemployment, is one of the largest and the least spoken-of issues in the valley. The way influential people manipulate the youth, with false promises. And from what I've seen, for whatever reasons, Kashmiris are simple, gentle people. If you sell them a false dream, they will just as easily buy into it. And, I've seen such exploitation first hand. As I have been a journalist myself, my first film had to be about one."
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