The other side of paradise: Kashmir and Indian cinema

On 5 August 2019, Article 370, which protected the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir, was revoked, adding another twist to the narrative of a tortured land that had fed cinema’s fantasies. Among the measures taken by the Indian government to bring ‘normalcy’ to the region was the ‘Jammu and Kashmir Film Policy’, endorsed by industry A-listers such as Aamir Khan and others. The policy aims to ‘provide means to attract tourists, employment to the local population and to disseminate information about art, culture, history, heritage, livelihood and the glorious traditions of Jammu & Kashmir’. This article leverages the policy document to revisit the representation of Kashmir in Indian films, through a framework where ‘regional representation’ is grounded in an understanding of cultural industries, repressed rights, and fantasies of ‘adaptive repurposing’ across sites of desire and conflict.