Kashmir is the flavour of the season for OTT platforms. From `Songs of Paradise’ to `Real Kashmir Football Club’ and from `Tanaav’ to `Baramulla’, Kashmir has become a central piece of some of the biggest hits on OTT in 2025. Latest to join the extraordinary league is `RKFC’, a homegrown football team. The series, which highlights resilience, ambition, and hope, has received widespread praise from the film fraternity for portraying a positive and inspiring side of the Valley. Earlier, Baramulla, another Netflix series filmed in Kashmir, also struck a chord with audiences and became an instant hit. In fact, Kashmir is witnessing a resurgence of Bollywood and OTT interest. From films to web series, the scenic Kashmir has again become the new address for filmmakers, not only from Mumbai but down south too. Kashmir-themed productions such as Baramulla, Ground Zero, Singham 3, and Songs of Paradise earned widespread critical acclaim. The OTT has also opened new vistas for Kashmir artists. From `Rangeen’ to `Songs of Paradise’, from `Tanaav’ to `Baramulla, Kashmiri artists have made their presence felt in Bollywood. Taaruk Raina and Khalida Jan featured in the recent web series `Rangeen’ on Amazon Prime Video. A multifaceted actor who doubles up as singer and songwriter, Taaruk plays the main character of `Sunny’ in Rangeen. Likewise, Khalida Jan, who hails from South Kashmir, plays the character of Roshni in the series. Bhasha Sumbli plays the lead actor in `Baramulla’, which premiered on Netflix. It marks the OTT debut of the actor, though she has played a key character in another movie, which had a theatrical release. Earlier, she had done a cameo in Deepika Padukone-starrer Chhapaak. An alumna of the National School of Drama, she graduated in 2013 and started writing, directing, and teaching theatre. New singer Masrat Un Nisa debuted with Songs of Paradise. Her `Dil Tsooran’ song became a chartbuster overnight. Rauhan Malik was recently selected to represent India at Intervision 2025. In a nutshell, OTT has brought windfall for obscure artists and filmmakers. What added to the cinematic glory was two back-to-back international film festivals in Kashmir. It is heart-warming that Kashmir is in the news for all good reasons. Credit goes to the UT government for hard-selling Kashmir to filmmakers. Department of Information and Public Relations participated in the 56th International Film Festival of India at Goa to promote Jammu and Kashmir. Last year, too, DIPR participated in the IFFI. These activities give a boost to our film tourism. J&K offers everything to filmmakers. A filmmaker shooting in Kashmir can save production costs by 60 percent. Iron is hot, and our government needs an extra effort to woo more filmmakers. The government needs to create a feel-good factor to offset the negative perception, particularly created after the Pahalgam attack. The time is not far away when Kashmir will regain its lost glory.
OTT windfall
