Yami Gautam, Pulkit Samrat, Junooniyat crew get gheraoed in Kashmir
7:55 AM
Subhash K Jha (DNA; December 13, 2014)
Shooting in Sonmarg with Kashmiri girls as extras
shouldn’t normally have been a problem. But given the current volatile
situation in the state, as Junooniyat director Vivek Agnihotri and his
lead pair Pulkit Samrat and Yami Gautam learned, matters could soon
turn ugly without warning.
The film’s unit, which recently
returned from Kashmir, was apparently hounded and assaulted by Kashmiri
locals for using native girls in a song sequence.
Vivek recounts the horror of it all, “It was all smooth in Sonmarg and after shooting a song where around 20 Kashmiri girls participated, the unit was on their way out of Sonmarg. Their vehicles were laid siege by around a 100 Kashmiri men with burning torches demanding that the Kashmiri girls be handed over to them. Fortunately they had finished their work and were not with us.”
He continues, “It’s not that the Kashmiris don’t want their women-folk to work in films. They’re okay with them working in Kashmiri films, but not Hindi films. They hate the government that has ruled them for decades and are looking for a change.”
After this incident, the remaining shooting was done under strict bandobast. “We were surrounded by security personnel in Srinagar and Pahalgam. It took us seven hours to reach the airport on the day we were leaving because the Prime Minister was coming that day,” shares the director.
In spite of this experience, he is all set to return to Kashmir in February 2015 for the next schedule.
Shooting in Sonmarg with Kashmiri girls as extras
shouldn’t normally have been a problem. But given the current volatile
situation in the state, as Junooniyat director Vivek Agnihotri and his
lead pair Pulkit Samrat and Yami Gautam learned, matters could soon
turn ugly without warning.
The film’s unit, which recently
returned from Kashmir, was apparently hounded and assaulted by Kashmiri
locals for using native girls in a song sequence.Vivek recounts the horror of it all, “It was all smooth in Sonmarg and after shooting a song where around 20 Kashmiri girls participated, the unit was on their way out of Sonmarg. Their vehicles were laid siege by around a 100 Kashmiri men with burning torches demanding that the Kashmiri girls be handed over to them. Fortunately they had finished their work and were not with us.”
He continues, “It’s not that the Kashmiris don’t want their women-folk to work in films. They’re okay with them working in Kashmiri films, but not Hindi films. They hate the government that has ruled them for decades and are looking for a change.”
After this incident, the remaining shooting was done under strict bandobast. “We were surrounded by security personnel in Srinagar and Pahalgam. It took us seven hours to reach the airport on the day we were leaving because the Prime Minister was coming that day,” shares the director.
In spite of this experience, he is all set to return to Kashmir in February 2015 for the next schedule.
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