The festival has brought cinema back into the public and cultural conversation in Jammu and Kashmir, but its larger promise lies elsewhere: in creating the conditions under which cinema can become an enduring part of the region’s creative economy and cultural life, MUSHTAQ BALA
Mushtaq Bala
For Jammu and Kashmir, cinema has never been merely about locations.
For decades, the Valley’s mountains, lakes, meadows, old neighbourhoods and distinctive cultural landscape have provided a natural backdrop for Indian cinema. In the 1970s and 1980s, Kashmir had a particularly close relationship with the film industry. But that relationship weakened over the years, leaving behind memories of a cinematic past without a comparable ecosystem for filmmakers, technicians, writers, actors and film students within the region.
The first International Film Festival of Jammu & Kashmir, being held in Srinagar from September 7 to 10, has therefore arrived at an important moment. Beyond the screenings, red carpets and interaction with filmmakers, the festival is beginning to raise a more fundamental question: Can Jammu and Kashmir move from being a beautiful location for films to becoming a sustainable place for filmmaking?
The discussion acquired greater significance on the second day of IFFJK-2026, when Chief Secretary Atal Dulloo and Commissioner Secretary, Information, R. Alice Vaz, participated in a policy dialogue on how the J&K Film Policy, single-window clearances and incentives can contribute to a sustainable local cinematic ecosystem.
The emphasis was important. The challenge before J&K is not simply to attract a few major productions to shoot against its spectacular landscapes. A genuine film ecosystem requires writers, directors, actors, cinematographers, editors, sound designers, production managers, technicians, animators, visual-effects professionals, educators and institutions capable of sustaining talent beyond individual productions.
Dulloo’s observation that cinema is a collective endeavour deserves particular attention. The people who appear before the camera represent only one part of a much larger industry. If J&K is serious about establishing itself as a cinematic destination, opportunities must extend to the many professionals who work behind the screen as well.
This is where the idea of a sustainable ecosystem becomes more meaningful than simply promoting Kashmir as a film location.
The Chief Secretary also spoke of creating opportunities for young people interested in filmmaking and allied professions, including the possibility of scholarships at reputed national institutions and partnerships that could bring specialised courses and training to J&K. The role of the Skill Development Mission in developing relevant courses was another significant aspect of the discussion.
For a region with a large and talented young population, this could prove to be one of the most consequential areas of intervention.
Talent exists, but talent alone does not create an industry. A young writer needs access to mentors and markets. An aspiring cinematographer needs equipment and training. An editor needs professional opportunities. An actor needs casting platforms. A filmmaker needs financing, locations, technical infrastructure and distribution. Without these linkages, individual talent often remains individual talent.
The government’s film policy, as explained by Alice Vaz, attempts to address part of this gap by combining incentives for film shootings with additional encouragement for regional filmmakers and productions with substantial local participation. Provisions relating to productions that shoot more than 50 per cent of their material in J&K, as well as incentives linked to local artists and personnel, could potentially generate a wider economic chain.
But implementation will matter more than policy language.
For filmmakers, one of the most persistent concerns in any location is the ease with which permissions can be obtained. Dulloo’s acknowledgement that the Single Window Clearance System needs further strengthening and simplification is therefore significant. The proposed Ease of Doing Business Bill, if it genuinely reduces procedural hurdles, could help transform J&K from a location that filmmakers admire into a location where producers can actually work with predictability.
There is another resource that J&K possesses in abundance but has perhaps underused: its stories.
Dulloo referred to the culture of encouraging people to write their own stories in Maharashtra and argued that similar efforts could help identify and nurture storytelling talent in J&K. The observation goes beyond cinema. Kashmir has an extraordinary reservoir of folklore, history, contemporary experience, family narratives, literature and oral traditions. Many of these stories remain outside the mainstream visual culture.
The next phase of the region’s cinematic journey should therefore not be limited to bringing outsiders here to tell stories about Kashmir. It should also be about enabling Kashmiris to tell their own stories—and giving those stories the professional support required to travel beyond the region.
That distinction could ultimately determine the success of IFFJK.
The festival’s second day itself offered a glimpse of how broad the cinematic conversation can become. Masterclasses and discussions addressed directing, cinematography, acting, independent cinema, curation and emerging technologies. A session examining the convergence of traditional regional art forms with animation, artificial intelligence and CGI was particularly relevant at a time when technology is rapidly lowering some of the traditional barriers to filmmaking.
Yet technology should complement, rather than replace, creative identity. For J&K, the real opportunity lies in combining its traditional artistic heritage and storytelling traditions with contemporary cinematic language and new technologies.
The connection between cinema and tourism also deserves a more serious examination. A successful film can do more than showcase a landscape for two hours. It can create a lasting visual association between a place and an audience. Film tourism can generate demand for accommodation, transport, hospitality, local services, guides, crafts and other economic activities.
But cinematic tourism is sustainable only when local communities participate in the economic benefits. Otherwise, Kashmir risks remaining a picturesque backdrop while the larger value chain develops elsewhere.
This is why IFFJK should ideally be seen not as a four-day event but as the beginning of a longer institutional process.
The festival has already demonstrated that J&K can host filmmakers, critics, technicians, students and cinema enthusiasts from different parts of India and abroad. The next challenge is to ensure that the conversations taking place in festival halls do not disappear when the festival lights are switched off.
What is needed now is continuity: regular film education, workshops, writing programmes, production support, access to equipment, local production networks, opportunities for young technicians, stronger film societies, archival initiatives, screening spaces and a mechanism through which promising local projects can find professional guidance and investment.
There is also a need for an independent and credible mechanism to periodically assess whether the Film Policy is actually producing the intended outcomes—how many local professionals are being employed, how many local productions are receiving support, how many students are entering the industry, and how much economic activity is being generated within J&K.
The ultimate measure of success cannot be the number of celebrities who attend a festival or the number of films that shoot a few scenes here.
It should be whether, five or ten years from now, a young filmmaker from Kashmir can write a script, receive professional training, assemble a local crew, obtain permissions without unnecessary delays, access production support, complete a film in J&K and find an audience for it—without having to leave the region at every stage of the journey.
That would constitute a genuine cinematic ecosystem.
IFFJK has opened an important conversation. The festival has brought cinema back into the public and cultural conversation in Jammu and Kashmir, but its larger promise lies elsewhere: in creating the conditions under which cinema can become an enduring part of the region’s creative economy and cultural life.
Kashmir once attracted the film industry because of its extraordinary landscapes.
The opportunity before J&K now is much larger—to attract the industry because of its people, its stories, its talent, its institutions and its ability to make films happen.
The real success of IFFJK will ultimately be judged not by what happens between September 7 and 10, but by what Jammu and Kashmir chooses to build after September 10.
Mushtaq Bala is Editor-in-Chief of Kashmir Pen, an award-winning filmmaker, cultural commentator, and advocate for peace through narrative media.
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