Sanjeev Kumar Sharma
The land of Jammu and Kashmir has produced numerous great persons who have left indelible marks in the diverse fields they worked by contributing through the best of their abilities. Like many fields, the glamorous world of Indian film industry and television has also seen contributions from many sons and daughters of J&K.
If we start naming such figures, the list may go too long but here we will concentrate on a common youngster of 1940s-a college going Kashmiri youth of those days in Srinagar. Now an eminent personality in films and drama, Pran Kishore Koul has completed the remarkable journey of life crossing 99 years of age and has received many great honours including ‘Padma Shri’.
The nonagenarian litterateur now says that his works of writing and making films are still in progress and he still learns little-little things every-day.
In an exclusive interaction with the Excelsior, Koul mentioned about how he started his journey to the stage.
“In our college functions at Srinagar, I used to act in plays in 1940s.Those days only Urdu plays used to be there. After college, I shifted to broadcasting profession at Radio Station in Srinagar,” he informed.
Koul was on a Jammu visit few days back to release the first film on Bhagwan Gopinath Ji-a revered saint among the Kashmiri Pandit community.
“The film ‘Sarvavyapi Bhagwan Gopinath Ji’ is making a good progress and a large number of people are watching it across different platforms,” he said.
In addition to acting, Koul has directed and written many screenplays.
He informed that 1940s was the time when Kashmiri prose made a start and dramas in those days used to be in Urdu mostly.
“Freedom struggle was in full swing at that time in the country and the drama was supposed to reflect aspirations of common man,” he said adding that after drama he made an entry to broadcasting profession in 1949 at Radio Kashmir Srinagar.
The veteran claimed that Kashmiri language got encouragement, motivation and an up-liftment from the radio.
“There were many writers in Kashmiri language at that time and their literary works used to have domination of stories but I encouraged many them to write dramas and the results were remarkable with many Kashmiri plays becoming a hit even at the national level and 2-4 such plays used to be accommodated in national programmes of All India Radio every year,” he stated.
After remaining Senior Producer in Drama Department of All India Radio (AIR), Koul headed the Radio Drama Section of AIR which at that time dealt with dramas, documentaries, outside broadcasts etc.
“I shifted to television in 1989 but before that I had directed a Kashmiri feature film ‘Maanzirath’ which got President’s ‘Silver Peacock’ award for being the best regional films,” Koul maintained adding: “Another film on the life of renowned poet Mehjoor was also a big hit in which popular stars like Prikshat Sahni and Balraj Sahni had played roles and it was directed by Prabhat Mukerjee-a renowned Bengali Director while I was Co-director of that movie.”
He informed that he completely directed the Kashmiri version of that movie which was named as ‘Shayer-E-Kashmir Mehjoor’.
Koul also said that there was still another Kashmiri film ‘Babji’ but it failed to become a hit movie.
Onthe request of National Achieves of Doordarshan, P.K Koul made two Dogri tele-films ‘Pathri’, based on the short story by Madan Mohan Singh and ‘Dr. Meharbaan’, based on the story by Chaterpal.
“I wrote dialogues in English for these films and these were then translated in Dogri by Jatinder Sharma. For these movies I had technicians from Mumbai but all the artists were from here and they have performed very well,” he stated.
The nonagenarian litterateur claimed that there is no dearth of talent in J&K but avenues are limited here.
“With the release of first Dogri film ‘Galan Hoian Beetian’, a good film industry should have been established here but it did not happen as it all required money,” he continued making a claim that if one invests in J&K, the film industry can also emerge here.
Koul also said that for a film industry to flourish here, the government should come up with a Film Corporation for the entire of J&K.
“There are good actors, singers, musicians and writers in J&K to ensure all the success of such a Corporation,” he remarked.
“Despite turmoil in Kashmir, there is a guild of actors, producers and others, who work jointly and they also have all the required equipment. They also help each other while those visiting Kashmir for making films also sometimes borrow equipment from them,” Pran Kishore asserted.
He said that insurgency in Kashmir has badly hit the progress of film making in the valley.
The veteran proudly mentioned about of one of his success stories-the popular TV serial of yesteryears ‘Gul Gulshan Gulfaam’ which was based on his novel.
“The serial had captured the original soul of Kashmir and became a hit at international level also and is even available at present on YouTube platform,” he said adding that the serial also remained a hit at Cable Network of Europe in America and the novel upon which it was based was also translated into English jointly by him and Prof Shafi and it was published by HarperCollins, a reputed American publishing company, where it remained among best top 10 novels for 4-5 years and it is now considered as an epic in Kashmiri prose.
“I also wrote a big book ‘My Days in Broadcasting’ which is based on the history of broadcasting and history of Kashmir of that time and it contains my experiences at AIR Kashmir from 1949-1985,” Koul said.
He informed that after that,he wrote a novel ‘Sheen Tu Watu Pod’ (Barf Aur Pagdandi) for which he was conferred Sahitya Akademi Award. This novel was based on the real life of tribal Gujjars and Bakerwals of J&K.
Koul also translated this novel in English after which it got the best book award. All his books are presently available on Amazon and other online platforms.
Pran Kishore Kaul was one of the founders of Miltsar Kashmir Music & Dance Group, a group that travels widely with the goal of supporting Kashmiri and Indian arts. He was awarded with the civilian award Padma Shri in 2018.
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