Bollywood's shifting gaze: The missing Kashmiri voice

Hindi cinema has repeatedly returned to Kashmir — but rarely on terms defined by Kashmir itself.

Across decades, the Valley has been recast to fit shifting national moods and cinematic trends. It has appeared as romance, paradise, conflict, and more recently, as a site of historical assertion. Films like ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’, ‘Roja’, ‘Mission Kashmir’, ‘Yahaan’, ‘Lamhaa’, ‘Haider’, ‘Shikara’, and ‘The Kashmir Files’ mark not just cinematic evolution, but changing ways of seeing Kashmir itself.

Yet across these shifts, one continuity stands out: Kashmir remains highly visible on screen, but Kashmiris remain marginal in shaping how their own story is told.

From paradise to presence

In the 1960s and ’70s, Kashmir in Hindi cinema was largely an aesthetic idea. ‘Kashmir Ki Kali’ turned the Valley into a cinematic paradise — lush landscapes, romance, and escapism. The region existed as a backdrop rather than a society.

That changed sharply in the ’90s. With insurgency and political unrest entering national consciousness, cinema shifted too. ‘Roja’ became a landmark, bringing Kashmir into mainstream Hindi cinema through the lens of national security, militancy, and state response.

From that point onward, Kashmir was no longer just scenery. It became narrative terrain shaped by conflict.

Conflict as dominant grammar

By the 2000s, films like ‘Mission Kashmir’ and ‘Yahaan’ further embedded Kashmir within stories of trauma, radicalisation, and personal loss. ‘Lamhaa’ attempted a more political reading of the region but still relied heavily on external perspectives to guide the viewer. 

Even when the films engaged seriously with conflict, Kashmir often remained a setting for other people’s moral journeys rather than a society speaking in its own voice.

The outsider gaze

A recurring critique among scholars and commentators in Jammu and Kashmir is the dominance of what is often called an “outsider gaze” in Hindi cinema.

Even when Kashmir is central to the plot, narrative authority frequently rests with characters who arrive from outside — soldiers, journalists, intelligence officers, or investigators — through whom the audience is invited to understand the Valley.  

Farrukh Faheem, sociologist at the University of Kashmir, sees this as a structural limitation rather than an isolated creative choice. “Kashmir in mainstream cinema is rarely treated as a lived society with its own internal voice. It becomes a setting where others arrive, interpret, and define. That creates an imbalance in storytelling itself,” he says.

This reading aligns with the work of historian Mridu Rai, who has argued that dominant Indian narratives on Kashmir are often framed through lenses of security and nationalism, leaving limited space for Kashmiri subjectivity. “The story of Kashmir is frequently told through the priorities of the state rather than the experiences of its people,” she has noted in her academic work.

In such framing, Kashmiri characters often appear as victims, militants, or silent observers — present in the story, but rarely driving it.

A more assertive turn

In recent years, Kashmir’s cinematic representation has taken a more assertive and politically charged turn. ‘The Kashmir Files’ triggered widespread debate over memory, representation, and historical narrative, becoming one of the most discussed films in recent years.

For many audiences outside the Valley, such films often serve as primary reference points for understanding Kashmir.

Faheem notes that cinema’s influence lies in its emotional structure. “Film does not just represent reality — it organises emotion. When that emotion is built around binaries, it can fix perception in ways that persist long after the viewing experience ends,” he says.

The concern raised by scholars is not only about what is depicted, but also about what is excluded.

Repetition and reduction

For many Kashmiris, cinematic representation is experienced not as isolated portrayals but as repetition over time.

A Srinagar-based visual artist working with memory and identity describes this repetition as narrowing. “We are repeatedly shown through extremes — either as victims or as threats. But ordinary life is missing. That absence is not neutral; it slowly becomes the dominant image,” the artist says.

This absence is significant in a region where everyday realities — education, work, relationships, cultural life — rarely find sustained cinematic attention. Over time, repetition itself becomes a form of narrative construction.

Nuance at the margins

There have been attempts to complicate this cinematic language. ‘Haider’ is widely regarded as one of the more layered mainstream Hindi films on Kashmir, reimagining Shakespeare’s ‘Hamlet’ to explore disappearance, militarisation, and moral ambiguity. ‘Shikara’ attempted to centre the displacement of Kashmiri Pandits.

But these remain exceptions within a broader ecosystem that continues to favour clarity over contradiction and resolution over ambiguity. Even when nuance appears, it often competes with more dominant, high-volume narratives that define popular understanding.

Who owns Kashmir’s story?

At the heart of the debate is authorship. Most mainstream Hindi films on Kashmir are conceived, written, and produced outside the region. This distance shapes not only storytelling choices but also what is considered narratable.

Faheem frames it as a question of narrative authority. “Representation is not only about visibility. It is about who has the power to define meaning. When Kashmiris are not part of that process, what emerges is always partial,” he says.

That partiality is what many in the Valley respond to — not a single misrepresentation, but a sustained absence of voice.

Beyond familiar frames

Bollywood’s Kashmir has transformed repeatedly — from romantic escape to security lens to conflict narratives, and the more recent, assertive storytelling.

Each phase reflects the anxieties of its time — romantic, political, and ideological. But across all phases, one gap remains consistent: the limited presence of Kashmiris as authors of their own cinematic representation. As the Srinagar-based artist puts it: “We are present in these films, but not as storytellers. That difference shapes everything about how we are seen.”

Ultimately, Kashmir in Hindi cinema has never been just about geography — it has been about meaning. Each phase of representation, from romance to conflict to assertion, reflects shifting national anxieties as much as cinematic imagination. But in that process, Kashmir is often spoken about more than spoken with.

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