Ahead of the peak winter season the Union Territory administration has kick started a fresh campaign urging the film fraternity to renew its decades’ old romance with Jammu & Kashmir.On Monday, Secretary, Tourism & Culture, Sarmad Hafeez pitched for making the UT as the premier shooting destination of India during the national level Film Tourism symposium.
During the event, jointly organised by the Ministries of Tourism & Information & Broadcasting in Mumbai, the Tourism Secretary dwelt in detail on the long and age old relationship Jammu & Kashmir has had with Bollywood and other film platforms of the country.
On the occasion several Bollywood producers shared their experiences of Kashmir and said that they have special love for the place. They assured of their support in turning to UT for shooting again.
He also reminded the film industry of its warm and affectionate relationship with Jammu & Kashmir which the people of the UT so fondly recall. He appealed the members of film world to take up this thread of warm relationship forward and start re visiting Jammu & Kashmir in good numbers for shooting.
Asking the film fraternity to partner with UT administration in this regard, Sarmad Hafeez said the Government has recently put in place a comprehensive Film Policy by which film shooting and production in J&K has been institutionalized and incentivized. In a detailed presentation about the Film Policy, he outlined the thrust areas and scope for working on film projects in J&K. He said for the first time shootings in the UT have been incentivized and requisite infrastructure for the same is being made available.
Union Secretary, Tourism, Arvind Singh; Secretary, Information & Broadcasting, Apurva Chandra; Director General, Ministry of Tourism, Ganji Kamlavardhan Rao; Additional Director General, Tourism, Rupinder Brar, Head, Film Facilitation Office, National Film Development Corporation of India (NFDC), Vikramjit Roy also spoke on the occasion. Nine States and Union Territories namely, Jammu & Kashmir, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Goa and Maharashtra were present on the occasion to showcase the initiatives undertaken by them towards ease of filming as well as the opportunities available in their jurisdictions.
Earlier in the day, the Secretary Tourism had a series of meetings with representatives of several tourism trade bodies as they took keen interest in several products being offered by Jammu & Kashmir Tourism including MICE and corporate tourism. Several other delegations also met Sarmad Hafeez and enquired about the potential of various segments like adventure tourism, winter sports, spring festivals etc.