'Pathaan' emerges as first film in 33 years to have houseful shows in Kashmir
Srinagar (PTI): People of Kashmir are queuing up to watch Shah Rukh Khan-starrer "Pathaan", making it the first film to have houseful shows in 33 years in the Valley.
The cinema halls reopened in Kashmir last year after being shut for three decades due to threats and attacks by militants.
Vikas Dhar, owner of Kashmir's only multiplex theatre, said all the shows of the spy thriller were houseful on the first day of its release on Wednesday.
"I did not know Shah Rukh Khan has such a massive fan following in Kashmir. All shows on the first day were fully booked while five of the seven shows on Republic Day were also sold out," Dhar told PTI.
It was due to restrictions on movement of people on account of the Republic Day parade in the vicinity of the multiplex in Badamibagh area of the city that the first two shows had less than expected audience, he added.
Dhar opened his multiplex theatre last year in September. The theatre has three screens with a total capacity of 520 seats.
"This is after 33 years that people are queuing up to watch movies in Kashmir. This was the dream when we set out with this project and it has come true," he said.
Besting boycott calls over the song "Besharam Rang", "Pathaan" has performed phenomenally at the box office, raising Rs 219.6 crore gross worldwide in just two days. The film released on January 25 amid high security across the country.
Dhar said much-like the rest of the country, there has been no effect of the controversy on the film's run. "Everyone here is coming for entertainment," he added.
The Valley had nearly a dozen stand-alone cinema halls functioning till the late 1980s, but they had to wind up businesses after militant outfits threatened the owners.
Though attempts were made to reopen some of the theatres in the late 1990s, militants thwarted such efforts by carrying out a deadly grenade attack on Regal Cinema in the heart of Lal Chowk in September 1999.
Two other theatres -- Neelam and Broadway -- had opened their doors but had to shut business due to poor response.
Mohammad Iqbal, an avid cinema viewer, said the last time he saw a housefull board outside a theatre was in 1989 when Sunny Deol's "Tridev" was released.
"It has been 33 years since I saw a house full board outside a theatre. The last I saw such a board was for Sunny Deol's 'Tridev' in 1989 at Khayyam cinema," he said.
"Pathaan '' opened on Wednesday in over 5,000 screens across the country. Due to high demand, the film's total screen count was later increased to 8,500 worldwide.
A Yash Raj Films project, "Pathaan" is directed by Siddharth Anand. It also features John Abraham and Deepika Padukone.
The film is Shah Rukh's first big screen release as a lead after over four years.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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