After SRK’s Pathaan, Nolan’s Oppenheimer brings audiences back to Kashmir’s only cinema hall: ‘We are sold out for the weekend’

Dhar says that Kashmiris are returning to the theatres. “When we reopened the theatre after 33 years, we were not expecting much. However, when Pathaan released, it ran to full houses. But after Pathaan, to see the reaction of people for Oppenheimer, is quite a surprise. It’s good to see that people are open to watching a good movie like the Cillian Murphy-starrer.”

Giving details about how many shows will be running at the theatre and the price range for tickets, Dhar says, “There are three screens in the multiplex with a 535 capacity. Oppenheimer is fully booked for tomorrow, Saturday and Sunday. The ticket range is between Rs 1000 and Rs 300. We are running four shows of Oppenheimer out of which one is in Hindi.”

The reception the film based on the ‘father of atomic bomb’, J Robert Oppeheimer has pleasantly surprised him. “It is a very important event because it is not Pathaan, it is not Shan Rukh Khan or Salman Khan, it is Oppenheimer, a movie which I don’t even know how people got to know about in the first place… maybe through social media. One would expect Bollywood films to do well here, but for a Hollywood film to do so well in Kashmir is really a precursor to change here,” Dhar says.

He also says that when Pathaan ran succesfully in the Valley, it was mentioned in the Parliament. “It is reassuring to know that people wanted entertainment and desired for movies to be shown. I think when Pathaan was running it was mentioned in the Parliament that cinema houses are running full (in Kashmir).”

Dhar’s family owned the popular Broadway cinema in Kashmir, which burnt down in 1993. The theatre reopened as the Inox: Srinagar Shivpora in September 2022. He shares, “We used to run a cinema hall earlier called Broadway, it was quite a popular cinema at that time but we had to close it down in 1990 and in 1993 it was burnt down. That time we used to run one English (film) show every day at 7 o’ clock and it used to be reasonably crowded, people used to like it.”

Dhar calls his family’s decision to reopen a theatre in the Valley ‘bold’. He shares, “It was a bold decision because opening a theatre after 32 years of militancy and uncertainty… but we decided we’ll open it because people should know what entertainment is.”

Oppenheimer is being pegged as Christopher Nolan’s densest and most remarkable work till date by reviewers. The biopic stars Cillian Murphy as J. Robert Oppenheimer, who led the American effort to create the first atomic bomb. The film has a stellar ensemble cast that includes Matt Damon, Robert Downey Jr, Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh, among many others.