Web Story Desk
Srinagar, Jan. 26: After the release of the eagerly anticipated Bollywood film ‘Pathaan’, Kashmir returned to its former glory when there used to be a huge lines of people waiting outside theatres to get tickets for watching the scintillating performances of their favourite stars.
Reporting reaching to Webstory said that it was nothing less than a carnival as Shahrukh Khan fans were ecstatic to see him back on the big screen after a four-year sabbatical, and there was a sizable crowd outside Srinagar’s only newly renovated cinema in Kashmir, Inox.
After a three-decade hiatus, fans flocked to theatres to watch Pathaan, and for two days straight, 12 out of 14 shows were sold out despite Kashmir’s chilly winters.
Vijay Dhar, owner of the INOX multiplex, quoted by news agency KNO said that 14 shows (7 on Wednesday and Thursday) had been screened.
“All seven shows yesterday were houseful as all the seats remained occupied in the halls,” he said, adding that the Inox remained jam-packed yesterday.
After thirty years, cinemas returned to Kashmir in September of last year when Jammu and Kashmir Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha opened the state’s first multiplex in Srinagar’s Sonwar neighbourhood.
Srinagar was home to 10 single-screen theatres till 1989, till Allah Tigers, a militant outfit, declared a ban on liquor shops and cinemas.
Following the violence in Kashmir, cinemas, including the Palladium, were closed or burned down.
Jai Hind (later renamed Neelam), Firdous, Shah, and Shiraaz were turned into security camps, while Khyber is now a hospital.
In 1999, a few cinema halls dared to shun the militants’ threats and reopen, only to be forced to shut shop again after a grenade attack on Regal that September.
