Bollywood movie Laila Majnu, a tragic romance that portrayed Kashmiri characters in the backdrop of the peaceful valley in 2018, has run houseful on day one of its re-release at the INOX Theatre in Srinagar on Friday.
“We had all the tickets sold for the first show. It was houseful,” Vikas Dhar, Managing Director of the Taksal Hospitality Pvt. Ltd. that owns the multiplex, told The Hindu.
The tragic love story with all the trappings of local culture and family settings failed to make a mark on box office in 2018. The movie consciously stayed away from showing any aspect of conflict, whether masked militants or gun-toting security personnel, and managed to win hearts locally for bringing real cultural and emotional aspects of Kashmir to the silver screen.
“This film always addressed my nostalgia by portraying Kashmir as it is when I studied in Bangalore. I was waiting for its re-release in Srinagar. It’s a dream come true to watch the movie in Srinagar today,” Majid Altaf, an engineering student, said.
The movie starred actors Avinash Tiwary and Tripti Dimri. Directed by director Sajid Ali, who is a brother of film-maker Imtiaz Ali, the movie was conceived and the shoot began in a year when Kashmir erupted with street violence after the killing of Hizbul Mujahideen ‘commander’ Burhan Wani. It was released in 2018 and tanked at the box office. It never got released in Kashmir because no cinema halls existed then.
“When I visited a cinema hall after the movie’s release outside J&K, it had just 25 people, including my family. There was just one poster promoting it. Cut to 2024, it’s houseful in Srinagar and there are big posters outside. The re-release has become a reality because of the love shown by Kashmiris. When the movie was made there were no cinema halls in Kashmir. Today, I sat with the audience to watch it,” actor Tiwary said.
Director Ali said the movie means a lot to locals, “as they see their own characters coming alive on the bigger screen and relatable”.
“I will always remain indebted to people for their faith in the movie,” Mr. Ali added.
Mr. Ali credited his brother Imtiyaz Ali for pushing him into “conceiving an authentic movie about the people and the place”. “This movie is about people of Kashmir, who live in a normal society. They marry, they get divorced and die a normal death too. It’s a classical story with modern characters picked from Kashmir,” Mr. Ali said.
Preety Ali, producer of the movie Laila Majnu, said she plans to re-release it in other major cities across the country too. “It has become a cult film in the romance genre, which is far more rewarding than the business it did. The music too became a hit. People in Kashmir remember the songs even after six years. It created a magic, which was widely appreciated,” Ms. Ali said.
Enthused and upbeat, young girls and boys waited for the Laila Majnu team, especially actor Avinash, to have a photo session with, after the first show was over on Friday. It was a rare scene for a place that had no cinema halls for more than 30 years. INOX became the first 520-seater multiplex cinema hall in Kashmir to screen movies in October of 2022. Thereafter, the government inaugurated several cinema halls in other parts of Kashmir, in an endeavour to reach out to cinemagoers of the Valley.
Kashmir valley had 11 cinema halls till 1990, when it saw eruption of militancy and closure of cinema halls. Former Chief Minister Dr. Farooq Abdullah made efforts to reopen cinema halls in 1996 but failed to attract an audience and even witnessed attacks from militants on these cinema halls. In 1999, the Regal cinema in Lal Chowk was closed down after militants threw a grenade outside.
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