Kashmir’s beleaguered filmmakers have received a rare offer from the government to shoot films — ones that will portray the alleged virtues of Naya Kashmir.

The initiative has only evoked howls of anguish from the fraternity, which says the arrival of Naya Kashmir dried up opportunities for making movies or TV serials, impoverishing a once-thriving community of artists some of whom have been forced to work as auto-rickshaw drivers.

Nor is the administration funding the filmmaking — it has announced a short film contest and prizes for the winners, which means the remaining participants would be spending but not receiving any money.

This is adding insult to injury, actor-filmmaker Hassan Javed, who has acted in more than 100 TV serials during a three-decade-old career, said. “I don’t know where the ‘development’ is when it comes to our fraternity,” he told The Telegraph.

The department of information and public relations (DIPR), which has launched the “Naya Jammu and Kashmir short film making competition”, has invited applications from local people to showcase the development the erstwhile state has undergone following the 2019 scrapping of its special status.

The government has been peddling a “Naya Kashmir” narrative, which claims the Valley has finally found peace, development and normality since 2019 and that the residents are enjoying the change.

The DIPR has invited “domicile” filmmakers to make 15-to-20-minute films to highlight the purported development.

“Participant(s) must follow the theme Naya Jammu and Kashmir which can be broadly interpreted to include the human, infrastructural, technological and socio-economic development,” the DIPR said in front-page newspaper ads.

“Winning candidates will get a chance to interact and learn from leading filmmakers in Mumbai.”

The winner, first runner-up and second runner-up will receive Rs 2.5 lakh, Rs 1.5 lakh and Rs 75,000, respectively. There are three consolation prizes of Rs 40,000 each.

DIPR director Jatin Kishore said the competition was open to all residents, not just professional filmmakers.

“Anybody who has a mobile phone can shoot. It’s a voluntary exercise and nobody is being compelled to participate”, Kishore told this newspaper, when asked about the complaint that the project will incur costs but only a handful will be rewarded.

Javed said: “We have no work. More than 90 per cent of people who were involved in TV serials and related work have long quit the profession. They are all struggling.

“Doordarshan was our mainstay but it has long closed its doors on us, apparently because of a lack of funds. I don’t remember when I last acted in a serial.”

Javed is among hundreds of television and theatre actors, singers, producers, makeup artists and cameramen who once earned a living thanks to the programmes run by Doordarshan and All India Radio or the plays and events organised by the then state government’s Cultural Academy.

These were their sole sources of livelihood given the absence of private entertainment channels here.

But these avenues have almost disappeared in Naya Kashmir, Javed said, although it’s not clear why the funds for DD and the other government agencies dried up after 2019.

“These days we are engaged in theatre but we occasionally land work at the Cultural Academy,” Javed said.