Anil Raina (MUMBAI MIRROR; April 25, 2018)

After Anurag Kashyap’s Manmarizyaan team raised the hackles of locals in Sonamarg when they accessed the restricted path leading to the endangered Thajiwas glaciers a few weeks ago, Salman Khan and his Race 3 crew was provided with environment-friendly vehicles to shoot in the area by the state development authority.

“Around 10 battery-driven cars have been provided to the Race 3 crew to shoot at Thajiwas glacier. The local line producer, Khawar Jamshed (who has previously facilitated shooting of films like Rockstar and Jab Tak Hai Jaan in the area), handles all major Bollywood shoot in Kashmir and has made sure that this one goes smoothly as well,” a source close to the development told Mirror.

Jamshed, who said that the film’s team adhered to all terms and conditions for permission to shoot in the Thajiwas area, further informed that after arriving in Srinagar on Monday, Salman left for the shooting location in Sonamarg, where, over dinner, he caught up with locals he had befriended while shooting for Bajrangi Bhaijaan. On Tuesday, Race 3 director Remo D’souza and team, along with Salman and leading lady Jacqueline Fernandez, shot at the same spot where Kabir Khan had filmed Bajrangi Bhaijaan.

Vehicular movement on the Sonamarg-Thajiwas road was banned following an order issued by the Jammu and Kashmir High Court in September, 2017 in the wake of a research study that noted that the Thajiwas glacier has receded 388 meters in the last 100 years due to fossil fuel in motored vehicles and the burning of woody biomass in the makeshift restaurants, tea stalls in the vicinity, which contributed to higher levels of black carbon.