 Early Times Report
Srinagar, Sept 30: With the inauguration of multiplex type facility in Lidder Valley on Thursday, Kashmir seems all set for return of silver screen.
The Chief Minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed is scheduled to inaugurate a multiplex at Pahalgam club on October 1 to attract high-end tourists to Kashmir.
Situated at the foothills of Pir Panchal mountains facing river Lidder, the club has a banquet hall, a multi-cuisine restaurant, a coffee shop, a four-lane bowling alley, swimming pools, separate gym for ladies and gents, a beauty parlour, a library cum reading room, 21 luxury suites and a showroom of Kashmiri artifacts and shawls.
A tourism official said the club has been equipped with a state-of-the-art first ever auditorium which can be used as a multiplex to watch movies depending upon the requirement. "We have installed requisite gadgets like projectors and pulsating sound studios in the auditorium and so it can be used as a multiplex for the guests anytime," the official told Early Times adding "Mahurat is set for October 1."
He said the aim of the club is to attract high-end tourism to Kashmir adding that it would be run by Jammu Kashmir Tourism Development Corporation (JKTDC).
The famed Pahalgam club was established in 1960s during Prime Minister Bakshi Ghulam Mohammed, but was gutted down in 2005.
Since March this year, however, when new government was formed, it took keen interest to gear up the work on the club with Mufti Mohammed Sayeed personally monitoring the work. Officials said it was only because of the personal efforts of Mufti that the facility is ready for use.
Soon after taking over as Chief Minister, Sayeed went to Mumbai asking Bollywood stars including Shah Rukh Khan to return to the valley for shooting. Before the onset of anti-India insurgency in 1989, the valley was favorite location for bollywood while cinema business was also on peak.
The cinema business however was closed down by militants in early 90s. Though subsequently the then Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in 2000 tried to reopen the cinema halls, it remained more of symbolic exercise to give financial benefits to cinema people in Abdullah's friend circle.
"After getting financial incentives for reopening of cinemas, the business people closed their ventures within days," recapped a senior official in police.
Thereafter efforts were being made to re-open cinemas in Kashmir. Earlier this year film-star Salman Khan during his shooting for Bajrangi Bhajian in Kashmir had appealed the government to reopen cinema halls.
"Following interactions with the Bollywood celebrities, Mufti Sayeed had been looking for avenues to bring multiplexes to Kashmir. It is the first step in this regard," said the Tourism official.
He said initially multiplex would be open for "selective audience." |
