New Delhi, July 27 (PTI): Big-ticket Hollywood movies “Oppenheimer” and “Barbie” were lapped up by audiences in Srinagar, says INOX Cinema theatre owner Vikas Dhar, who is confident that the momentum will continue with “Rocky Aur Rani Kii Prem Kahani” as the film’s director Karan Johar enjoys a huge fan following in the region. The theatre owner said he started getting requests for “Oppenheimer”, headlined by Cillian Murphy, about four-five weeks before the film’s release on July 21. Greta Gerwig’s “Barbie” also opened the same day, whereas the Tom Cruise-starrer “Mission: Impossible 7” hit the screens on July 14.
“(They said) ‘Please make sure it releases on the same day as the worldwide release and the rest of India… For the first time, we have three Hollywood films playing at the same time.
“We are looking forward to ‘Rocky Aur Rani…’ coming this week. Karan Johar has a huge fan following in Kashmir. I think that (film) should also do well. I feel the movie will be a longer-lasting film than ‘Barbie’ or ‘Oppenheimer’,” Dhar told PTI in an interview.
In a video message, Johar had expressed “immense gratitude” to Dhar’s educationist father Vijay Dhar and the people of Kashmir for their love and support during the making of “Rocky Aur Rani…” He shot “Tum Kya Mile”, the song from the film which releases Friday, in Kashmir.
Dhar said it was a “lovely surprise” when the filmmaker thanked his father in the video.
“Karan Johar thanked Vijay Dhar, which was quite a surprise… Kashmiris are house proud. We love the beauty of Kashmir. We are not somebody who grows up saying ‘We have seen this every day’… For us, to see that a big production (house) is coming here to shoot the movie makes us extremely proud and happy. The reaction of people here is fantastic,” he further said.
The love for cinema in Kashmir is not just limited to Bollywood, he said, recalling how the tickets for “Oppenheimer” were sold out in two-three hours of opening and the first day-first show of the movie was houseful. “Barbie”, starring Margot Robbie, had a relatively slow start but picked up later.
He praised the youth of Kashmir for being “in tune with the rest of the world”.
“They are not, as you say, a frog in the well, like we were when we were growing up. They are more global citizens, and they are the people who are interested in the history of the world… They understand who Cillian Murphy is, who Christopher Nolan is,” he added.
The theatre owner, who fulfilled his father’s dream by setting up a cinema hall in Srinagar 32 years after terror groups had banned or burnt majority of these theatres in the city, dreams that the Valley has more theatres in the coming time. “My hope is that more cinema houses come up. Mentally, it’s not a default option for us like in the evening, ‘Let’s go to the cinema hall, see what movie is screening, go get tickets, eat some dinner and come back’.
“Right now, what’s happening is that people with special interest in a particular movie are coming and seeing it,” the 56-year-old said.
