Last September, hairstylist and filmmaker Sapna Moti Bhavnani visited Kashmir to assist a local Sufi musician, Noor Mohammad, with his music video. “He wanted me to star in it. It was such a soulful Kashmiri song that I decided to co-produce it,” says Bhavnani, who divides her time between Mumbai and Kamshet. The track, titled Janaan, promoted by Zee Music, has received 2.4 million hits in the last nine months. During her stay in the valley last year, Bhavnani also visited Baramulla, reportedly one of the volatile areas in the state, to give a talk “on being a hajaam”.  “Many people on Twitter, including locals, told me not to go [to Baramulla] , but I went ahead and it was a great session. Kashmir embraced me like I was one of its own.” Buoyed by her experience, she planned a “horror” movie set in the Valley for which a script is ready. But, for that, Bhavnani will now need a green signal from the state. 

In a recent move, two years after the reading down of Article 370, the Lieutenant Governor of Jammu and Kashmir, Manoj Sinha, announced a new “film policy” for the Union Territory. The Jammu and Kashmir Film Development Council’s (KFDC) website states that the synopsis and script of a film, complete with dialogues, will have to be submitted by a filmmaker who is seeking shooting approvals and availing subsidies. The website clarifies that the “script will be evaluated by an expert from a panel constituted by the Union Territory of the Jammu and Kashmir Film Cell. It adds that security arrangements for “approved filmmakers” will be made free of cost. Incidentally, the Uttar Pradesh government too, has posted similar rules on the website of Film Bandhu, Uttar Pradesh, where filmmakers seeking shooting approvals in the northern state are required to get their scripts and dialogues vetted by the authorities. The requirement earlier applied only if the filmmaker was seeking subsidies.