Vedang Raina on returning to his Kashmiri roots: Kashmir deserves a lot more connection to cinema

As a Kashmiri, Vedang Raina had a special moment recently as he went back to his roots at the inaugural edition of the International Film Festival of Jammu Kashmir, where his film Main Vaapas Aaunga was chosen to close the festival last week. “I was going back to Kashmir only for the second time in my entire life and that place is very special to me as it is home. I wanted an excuse to go to Srinagar and when this opportunity came, it was the perfect match. To go there with a film of mine, my parents felt the proudest and emotional that I was doing something to give back to the people of where I come from,” he says.

Main Vaapas Aaunga is about leaving your home and everything you have had, and the want to come back home, and the actor insists that feeling resonates with the people in Kashmir more so. “They have faced very testing incidents be it the Partition, or what happened during the ’90s (with Kashmiri Pandits), while it was different, the emotion of leaving everything behind and then start afresh remains,” he says.

Getting appreciated and accepted from the people of Kashmir felt different for Vedang: “I didn’t even realise what kind of an audience Kashmir has for movies. I know that people there care about art and culture, but it’s through this film festival, I got to learn more about them. Whatever I can do to contribute to the culture of cinema being celebrated there, I wanted to do as it’s long overdue. Kashmir deserves a lot more theatre and connection to cinema, and being able to contribute to that feels special. People in Kashmir feel like family.”

Raving about Kashmir and its beauty and culture, Vedang says, “I just love the landscape. This time, I only got to go to Srinagar, but when you go to Pahalgam and Gulmarg, there's few places in India that are more gorgeous than that. Also the food, this time I had a proper Wazwan in Kashmir, which was amazing. I love Kashmiri food. And I also had the walnut fudge, and that is probably one of my favorite things. I got back home a lot too. Hopefully it'll survive for a while.”

Even though he is Kashmiri, it was actually filmmaker Imtiaz Ali , who turned out to be more well versed than him about the place. “I have a connection with the place but Imatiz Ali sir knows Kashmir way better than I do. He knows even the smallest places there, and when me and Sharvari were thinking of where to go, what to eat, Imtiaz sir knew it all,” he laughs, adding that he hopes to do a film set in Kashmir with Imtiaz. “If there's an opportunity that takes me to Kashmir, and if it's for a film shoot, that's even better. It means I will get to spend so much more time there. If Imtiaz sir writes it, that would be a dream come true. If he decides to cast me in it, I hope that's something that comes to fruition,” he says.