Fruit traders stop Bollywood movie shoot

They were portraying Kashmiris as terrorists: Fruit traders
We’re making a love story: Dolakia

Famous Bollywood director Rahul Dolakia and his crew while shooting a sequence of an upcoming movie 'Lamha’ at Parimpora Fruit Mandi Thursday were heckled away by fruit dealers fearing the scenes might harm the recently started cross-LoC trade and image of Kashmiris.

According to eyewitnesses, the crew of GS Entertainment Private Limited producing the film' Lamha' led by its director Dholakia and producer Lucky Sharma appeared at Fruit Mandi Parmipora at around 7 am to shoot a sequence of a film based on the ongoing Kashmir conflict.
The film has Sanjay Dutt, Bipasha Basu, Anupam Kher and Kunal Kapoor in lead role.

President Parimpora Fruit Mandi Bashir Ahmad Bashir told Rising Kashmir that he received information that a film crew was shooting some controversial shots in the Mandi.

He said that the film director had not informed local police nor taken permission from the authorities before shooting in the Fruit Mandi premises.

"The shot was of a pheran clad gun wielding youth taking out arms and ammunition from a vehicle with other boxes full of grenades and ammunition," Bashir said.

"The shots seemingly were controversial and could have misrepresented the people of Kashmir. It seems like an act to disrupt the cross-LoC trade," he added.

“Apparently they were making a sequence showing that guns and other ammunition are being infiltrated into Kashmir in trucks through-LoC," Bashir said

"I met the director and asked for the permission of shooting at the Mandi premises but he failed to produce it. Then we asked him to wind up the shoot and leave the place," said Bashir.

Kashmiri Fruits are exported to different Indian states from Parimpora Fruit Mandi and fruit dealers fear that a negative scene in the film could send wrong signals to the local and international market.

“We have informed all fruit mandis across the Valley not to allow film crew to shoot scenes which can be harmful for the Valley traders," Bashir added.

According to the dealers the director of the film apologized to the association members.

“Otherwise we would have filed an FIR against the director for shooting in Fruit Mandi without proper permission,” he said.

Director Rahul Dolakia and producer Lucky Sharma said that they were making a love story.

"We shot the film without seeking permission from the authorities. We tried to be sensitive toward the local sentiment but people felt that we were portraying a bad image about Kashmir, "Dolakia told media persons.

Dholakia told journalists at the spot that before planning to shoot in the Valley he had met the Chairmen of the parallel factions of the Hurriyat and apprised them about the story.

"I met Geelani and Mirwaiz and told them that my film will portray the actual situation in Kashmir. I started work on the film after their consent," Dholakia said.

This is for the first time that film makers had to bear embarrassment during shoot in the Valley.
Over the years, the big film houses have only projected Kashmir as “terrorist infested state” and in most films the average Kashmiri is portrayed in a negative role. However, Amir Khan starrer Fana was an exception.

Rahul Dholakia came into limelight after he directed a hit Parzania regarding the Gujarat riots that was acclaimed internationally.