Express News Service
GUWAHATI: Bollywood movies returned to restive Manipur on Tuesday, 23 years after the militants enforced a ban on their screening.
As part of the 77th Independence Day celebrations, the Hmar Students’ Association (HSA), a Kuki-Zo tribal students’ body, screened “Uri: The Surgical Strike” at Rengkai in the hill district of Churachandpur. A projector was used to screen the film from 7:30 pm. Over 100 people turned up. “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” was also lined up.
Incidentally, the last time a Hindi movie screened at a theatre hall in Manipur was “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” – in the late 1990s.
The HSA screened Bollywood movies to show its defiance against the ban on Hindi films. “As Indians, we must have access to arts and movies produced from all parts of India in public theatres,” Lalremsang, who is an executive member of HSA, told this newspaper.
“The main reason behind the banning of Hindi films was that they (militants) considered Hindi films as foreign films which badly influenced Meitei/Manipuri culture. The state government till today backs this ban but we do not subscribe to it,” Lalremsang said.
Churachandpur had a couple of theatre halls but they were shut down in the wake of the ban on the screening of Hindi films. Several others were shut down in the Meitei-majority Imphal valley.
“People here (Churachandpur) love to watch Bollywood films,” the student leader said.
“Uri: The Surgical Strike” and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” were screened. (Express)
In 2000, the insurgent group Revolutionary Peoples Front issued a notice banning Hindi, specifically Bollywood movies, for allegedly destroying Manipuri culture, language and local film industry. The outfit believed Bollywood went against Manipuri values.
In due course, the militants confiscated thousands of video cassettes of Hindi films and music and burnt them as a mark of protest against the “Indianisation” of Manipur. The ban killed off the movie theatre circuit in the state.
It was because of the ban that the biopic on champion boxer MC Mary Kom could not be screened in Manipur, the state where she was born. Priyanka Chopra played the role of the boxer in the movie.
GUWAHATI: Bollywood movies returned to restive Manipur on Tuesday, 23 years after the militants enforced a ban on their screening.
As part of the 77th Independence Day celebrations, the Hmar Students’ Association (HSA), a Kuki-Zo tribal students’ body, screened “Uri: The Surgical Strike” at Rengkai in the hill district of Churachandpur. A projector was used to screen the film from 7:30 pm. Over 100 people turned up. “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” was also lined up.
Incidentally, the last time a Hindi movie screened at a theatre hall in Manipur was “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” – in the late 1990s.googletag.cmd.push(function() {googletag.display(‘div-gpt-ad-8052921-2’); });
The HSA screened Bollywood movies to show its defiance against the ban on Hindi films. “As Indians, we must have access to arts and movies produced from all parts of India in public theatres,” Lalremsang, who is an executive member of HSA, told this newspaper.
“The main reason behind the banning of Hindi films was that they (militants) considered Hindi films as foreign films which badly influenced Meitei/Manipuri culture. The state government till today backs this ban but we do not subscribe to it,” Lalremsang said.
Churachandpur had a couple of theatre halls but they were shut down in the wake of the ban on the screening of Hindi films. Several others were shut down in the Meitei-majority Imphal valley.
“People here (Churachandpur) love to watch Bollywood films,” the student leader said.
“Uri: The Surgical Strike” and “Kuch Kuch Hota Hai” were screened. (Express)
In 2000, the insurgent group Revolutionary Peoples Front issued a notice banning Hindi, specifically Bollywood movies, for allegedly destroying Manipuri culture, language and local film industry. The outfit believed Bollywood went against Manipuri values.
In due course, the militants confiscated thousands of video cassettes of Hindi films and music and burnt them as a mark of protest against the “Indianisation” of Manipur. The ban killed off the movie theatre circuit in the state.
It was because of the ban that the biopic on champion boxer MC Mary Kom could not be screened in Manipur, the state where she was born. Priyanka Chopra played the role of the boxer in the movie.
