SRINAGAR: Bollywood superstar Shah Rukh Khan left for Mumbai after wrapping up the Kashmir leg of Dunki shooting.
Amid tight security, Khan arrived at Srinagar airport. Pictures of SRK holding a boarding pass at the Srinagar airport surfaced on social media. People were awestruck to see the superstar at the airport.
King Khan, who arrived in Kashmir on Monday for shooting Rajkumar Hirani’s Dunki, completed the first schedule in Sonamarg. On Thursday, he traveled to Panzgam in Pulwama to complete the second schedule.
For the unversed, Pulwama was a hotbed of militancy prior to 2019. In fact, Pulwama was home to several top commanders of Hizbul Mujahideen and Jaish-e-Mohammad.
The subtext of the film shooting in Pulwama was to create a positive image of Kashmir across the world. The government went overboard to facilitate the shooting in Pulwama. Massive security arrangements were made to ensure an incident-free film shoot.
“The government has created enabling atmosphere and ecosystem of facilitation for film tourism in J&K. This is a core focus area for the government. The government facilitated the shooting (of SRK),” Dr. Syed Abid Rashid, Commissioner Tourism, told The Kashmir Monitor.
Dunki, which also stars Tapasee Pannu will hit theaters on December 22 this year. Shahrukh’s wife Gauri Khan is also associated with the production of this film.
In the last two years, dozens of films, music videos, and web series have been shot at various locations. Several Kashmiri artists were roped in to play different roles. To name a few, Aamir Khan starrer Lal Singh Chadda, Vijay Deverakonda’s Kushi, and Arbaaz Khan’s Tanaav, cast many Kashmiri artists.
Pertinently, in 2021, the government launched its maiden film policy to attract filmmakers to Jammu and Kashmir. The government also created a Film Development Fund (FDF) in the Information Department for the fiscal year 2022-23 for the disbursement of subsidies envisaged in the J&K Film Policy 2021.