SRINAGAR: A promotional short film by Jammu and Kashmir’s Tourism Department to showcase Kashmir’s hospitality has taken the social media by storm and drawn over 3.2 million views in less than 72 hours after its release.
The five-minute film titled, “The Warmest Place on Earth” was screened at a function in Srinagar in presence of Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti.
The film produced by Jaibeer Ahmad depicts Kashmir as a place of exquisite landscapes with warm-hearted and hospitable people. The lyrics of the background song have been written by IAS officer from State, Shah Faesal. He was 2009 UPSC topper.
The film shows how an old Kashmiri man, on the way to purchase sugar in the market, ends up taking a tourist couple to sightseeing as they mistake him to be their driver. The Kashmiri man obliges them by taking them to a journey that goes to panoramic landscapes, Sufi shrines, traditional villages and even a Wazwan party.
On J&K Tourism’s Facebook page, the video has drawn over 2.6 million views, 22991 shares, 2308 comments and 36,000 likes by this evening.
The statistics from other platform is also similarly high.
“In all the video has drawn over 3.2 million accumulated views in all platforms of social media,” an official of J&K tourism said.
He said that the highest number of views had come from Gujarat, followed by Delhi, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Haryana.
The promotional video has been shared by Union Home Minister Rajnath Singh, J&K Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti, former J&K Chief Minister Omar Abdullah and other personalities.
In fact, Mehbooba’s promotion of the video was her first tweet.
Bollywood actor Alia Bhat to filmmakers Imtiyaz Ali and Karan Johar have also shared the video on Kashmir hospitality.
Director Tourism Kashmir, Mehmood Ahmad Shah told New Indian Express that people have received the promotional video very well.
“We have done this kind of exercise for the first time while states like Rajasthan, Gujarat and Kerala have done this exercise a decade back. We have done it now and we hope it would have positive impact on Kashmir tourism,” he said adding, “We have put in our honest effort to counter the negativity being portrayed about Kashmir”.
He said sharing of the video by Union Home Minister, State Chief and Bollywood actors would definitely have an impact.
“Some kind of buzz has been generated and we hope it translates into the arrival of tourists to Kashmir. We hope tourists will again come to Kashmir,” Shah said.
Asked how they got this idea, Director Tourism said it was a team effort.
“It was the team effort by the Agency, Tourism department and government. And we hope it pays off and tourists return to Kashmir,” he said.
The tourism in the Valley has been badly hit since last year, when Kashmir witnessed over five months long unrest after killing of Hizbul commander Burhan Wani in an encounter with security forces on July 8, last year.