No Entry For Salman’s ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ At Kashmir’s Holy Shrine
Salman Khan who is busy shooting for his Bajrangi Bhaijaan in Kashmir, will not be able to shoot in a famous shrine after being refused permission. The crew of Salman Khan starrer, were hoping to shoot inside the premises of the shrine of revered saint, Sheikh Zain ud Din Wali in Aishmuqam, Anantnag.
According to sources, a team of four members including the local facilitator, Khawar Jamsheed of KJ Productions, had earlier approached the intizaamiya president, Dr Abdur Rehman Khadim, who promised to get back to them only after consulting the whole intizaamiya committee and public.
“A production team visited my home last month and sought our permission to shoot at the shrine. We consulted people on this issue publicly and a decision was taken unanimously that no such activity will be allowed as it is a sensitive issue. It could create a law and order problem also” he mentioned.
He further added “that these spiritual places are sacred and pure which must not be degraded by such sinful activities.”
“We even consulted the mufti Azam of J&K, Mufti Bashir ud Din, who said the Bollywood movies are against the teachings of Islam hence no such un-islamic activity will be allowed inside the shrine.” Dr Rehman said.
According to him “some people within the intizaamiya were approached by police also, who were in a mood to force the shooting on us but we outright declined to allow the shooting inside the shrine. I personally called the IG Police Kashmir, S.J.M. Gillani, and apprised him of the situation and what the outcome would be, to which he replied that without taking local population into confidence nobody will be forced to let the crew in.”
Shafkat Raina, a devotee who frequents this shrine says, “As a Muslim youth I also don’t support the shooting of movies inside the Muslim shrines, as these places are our spiritual centers. By shooting movies inside such places the sanctity of such places gets tarnished. More-ever people visit such places for spiritual solace. If they want to have a scene from such place they can make an artificial or replica for such scenes.”
On the other hand, local head of Auqaf, who is appointed by the state government, Peer Fayaz said,”We have no information about the shooting as of now, if they approach with a formal order we will let them shoot but the scenes to be shot must not contradict the Shariah rules or the Sufi practices. If they want to shoot any sufi song written by Khusrao or some other Sufi saints we have no problem in that.”
He added “if the scenes are provocative or offending the Islam in any way we won’t respect even the government order in that case.”
Interestingly, when the intizaamiya President, Dr Rehman, was asked that the Head of local Auqaf contradicted with his version, to which he replied that the Head local Auqaf has joined the shrine administration just couple of days ago and was installed on political influence.
The shrine of Hazrat Azin-ud-Din Wali is situated on a hillock, about 20 Kms short of the famous hill resort of Pahalgam overlooking the bewitching Lidder Valley. It attracts lakhs of devotees every year from all-over India including non-Muslims, mostly Hindus.
