URMI’S CONTRIBUTION IN PROMOTING GARHWALI FILMS IS OUSTANDING say UK’s cultural activists

The regional film scenerio in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand is gaining ground with the government of Uttarakhand also taking innovative interest in reviving the official film body but still lot needs to be done to encourage national and regional film makers to produce quality movies in the hilly environs full of serene beauty and conducive pleasent climate.

Of late, the Uttarakhandi artistic talents have shown tremendous amount of interest in regional film making and also their active participation in Bollywood. While Uttarakhand cultural and folk presentations are quite popular worldwide amongst the people of Uttarakhand with legendery singers and musicians like Narendra Singh Negi, late Gopal Babu Goswami, late Chandra Singh Rahi, Heera Singh Rana, Kishan Mahipal, Gajendra Chouhan, Kalpana Chouhan, Rajendra Chouhan, Hema Negi Karsai etc having already made their mark and special contribution to promote the regional Garhwali Kumaon dialects and culture through their melodious songs, prominent actors and producers like Urmi Negi, Late Khanna Sahab, and scores of Uttarakhandi actors including those in Bollywood films like Hemant Pandey, Deepak Dobriyal, Brijendra Kala, Govind Pandey , Himani Shivpuri and Tigmanshu Dhulia have also contributed handsomely to prove their artistic talents and mettle in acting and direction.

Though, there is no dearth of CD films and songs of Uttarakhand flooding the local market with thousands of CD on sale but in terms of exclusive quality things are still on the back bench. Conclusively,we can say that due to the dearth of budget and the lack of governmental support and encouragement to promote regional film making, the desperate rush of low budget CD films and songs have degraded the quality aspect of these productions dominating by quantity.

Though, Uttarakhand has witnessed large screen films like Jagwal, Kabhi Sukh Kabhi Dukh, fyoli, Ghar Jawain, Bhuli E Bhuli etc with number of films still lying in cold storage but after a long time an outstanding Garhwali film produced by SNOWY MOUNTAIN FILM COMPANY owned by prominent actress and producer URMI NEGI, of Pauri Garhwal, living in Mumbai for a long time has made record of sorts by producing an extraordinary Garhwali movie that became super duper hit in Delhi, Mumbai, Pauri, Rishikesh, Dehradun, Roorkie, Lansedown and several other parts of the country. In fact the people of Uttarakhand in and around the 17 year old state have for the very first time fulfilled there desire and hunger for a magnificient movie that was perfect and extraordinare from all aspects viz. carrying a social message, full of sequential passionate story, outstanding cinematography, lovely scenes, precision in dialogues, mesmerising songs and music of legendary singer Narendra Singh Negi and melodious woman co singer Anuradha Nirala, fantastic script and excellent aura which kept the audience tied to their seats for three complete hours, not ready to leave theatres even after the film ended.

The film titled SUBHERU GHAM produced by prestigious Snowy mountain productions with the producer Urmi Negi herself playing the lead role of its heroine made the audience cry in sorrow with the fantastic story line and dialogues. The film was viewed by lacs of students, women from rural and urban areas, youths, middle and old aged and the educated and appreciated by one and all. Produced with a whopping budget of over 90 lacs, the producer has covered the entire amount because the movie being a block bustre in box office n super duper hit in Uttarakhand and the theatres of the cities, towns and metropolises like Delhi and Mumbai satisfied the long pending urge of cinemagoers for an excellent movie like this.

The outstanding quality of this regional Uttarakhandi film in Garhwali dialect titled Subheru Gham meaning early morning sunshine, has been for the very first time selected in the Canada film festival and screened for the international audience as well. This was the first ever Uttarakhandi film having been selected and screened in any international film festival. Primarily hailing from Pauri Gaon, Pauri Garhwal Urmi Negi shifted to Mumbai about 35 year ago and have carved a niche for herself in Bollywood and regional film industry by the dint of her hard work, commitment, intelligence, perfection and perseverence, having produced and acted in big screen regional movies like Ghar Jawain, Fyoli, Kauthig and hindi movies Sautan, serial Tijori, Swami Dada of Devanand and several plays including regional Marathi, Bhojpuri, Nepali and Punjabi films also.

She had been honoured with prestigious Kala Shree award, golder award of competition success and scores of other prestigious regional awards at the hands of the Uttarakhand Chief Minister Harish Rawat and several state ministers. After the resounding success of Subheru Gham highly talented and versalite actor Urmi Negi is currently producing documentaries for discovery channel and also working on her new project of a fantastic Garhwali film to be in our midst in two years or so. Good luck to her.
Sunil Negi, PRESIDENT, UTTARAKHAND JOURNALISTS FORUM