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Feroz Aslam* sports a shy smile whenever he hears a cup of tea on the plate. He can’t see, but he knows it’s his father.
“For the last 10 years, it has been my parents – they are sick – who have been feeding me,” the 28-year-old told Al Jazeera. “Being their eldest child, it makes me very ashamed.”
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Aslam was not born blind.
He lost his vision ten years ago when, running to a fruit market in Sopore, a town in Indian-administered Kashmir, he was hit by gunfire fired by Indian security forces during a protest against the government.
Aslam remembers falling to the ground as hot bullets penetrated his skin. He said: “Seven bullets entered my right eye and six left, and more than 300 hit my chest.”
When guns are fired, they release many small metal balls that tear into the body and become embedded in the tissues, where they are impossible to remove.
The pellets burned through Aslam’s cornea – the transparent covering that protects the clear parts of the eye – permanently disrupting his vision.
‘Bloodshot eyes’
Aslam is among more than 1,000 Kashmiris who have lost their sight, partially or completely, since New Delhi opened fire in 2010 to quell street protests in the Muslim-majority region, which is controlled in parts by India and Pakistan and claimed by both.
Now, the Bollywood comedy, which is scheduled to release in October 2027, has opened these bars in Kashmir.
Chauhaan has actor Ajay Devgn playing an Indian security chief, who faces hundreds of stone-pelting protests in Kashmir amid burning cars and street beatings.
Devgn’s comments in the background seem to be mocking the previous governments of India because they “joined the enemy” by refusing to be tough on the opposition. It complains about the ineffectiveness of the security forces operated by the Indian Army.
A mask to stay safe during a tear gas attack can be bought online, it says, while a pellet gun only does “minimal damage”.
The “action thriller” trailer ends with Devgn, wearing a skull mask and walking towards a group of protesters with a tire bomb shouting “Jumma chumma de de” – a famous film song from the 1990s, in which a lover wants to meet him on Friday so he can kiss him.
Many street protests against Indian rule in Kashmir took place on Friday.
Aslam may not watch Chauhaan’s teaser, but calls the upcoming film a disaster. “If the producers closed their eyes for just one day, they would know what it feels like to be blind,” he told Al Jazeera.
India’s use of firearms in Kashmir continued in 2016 as mass rallies were held in protests against the killings. Burhan Wania 22-year-old terrorist commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen.
Wani was shot dead along with two other terrorists on July 8, 2016, by the Indian army and police in Bundoora village in Anantnag district, about 85km (53 miles) from the capital Srinagar.
Wani’s killing sent the valley into a state of mourning for weeks with angry protests, which resulted in dozens of deaths and the blinding of hundreds of people, including women and children, some young. 18 months. Or, 14-year-old Insha Mushtaq, whose face was like that more damage with pellets that it took gods of plastic surgery to sew it together.
About 14 percent of people who are victims of pellets in Kashmir are children under 15 years of age.
Saiba Varma, a medical expert at the University of California San Diego whose work focuses on Kashmir, says Chauhaan’s political messages show how India’s public discourse has grown “very negative and indifferent to questions about the police presence” in Kashmir.
“When pellet guns were first popularized as a form of human control, the government justified them as a humane, less effective method than bullets.” “The use of pellet guns was necessary to advance the government as a humanitarian,” he told Al Jazeera.
“But now these issues seem to be over. The government no longer needs these excuses.”
Varma said the images of the Kashmiri pellet victims in the trailer of the movie had a prominent image of the Kashmiri people.
“Images of men with bloodshot eyes uttering animal screams reinforce the image of Kashmiris as dangerous people who need to be tamed,” he said.
‘My eyes are bleeding’
India’s use of firearms in Kashmir has drawn widespread criticism from rights groups and even the United Nations, which has accused India of “grave violations” against children.
“I call on the government to take action to protect children, including ending the use of tablets for children, ensuring that children are not linked to safety, and accepting the Safe Schools Declaration and the Vancouver Principles,” UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres said in the 2021 report.
In 2016, when the use of pellet guns by the Indian army was at its peak, the Supreme Court of India warned against their use “indiscriminately”, saying that they should be deployed sparingly and after “due consideration” by the authorities.
But the Indian government has defended their use as a bulletproof method.
Ten years later, Aslam still feels the pain in his eyes “to the point where sometimes I wish I was dead”. Unable to work, she says she finds it difficult to accept that her elderly father still works as a tailor to support the family.
About 40km (25 miles) from his home lives Masroor Khalid*, a man who was blinded by pellets in 2016.
At his home in Budgam district, Khalid has been fondling his portrait since he was a child. It shows a man in his late 20s, his arms are muscular, looking at the camera, a smile on his face.
Khalid was 20 years old when he was shot while distributing meat for sacrifice during the Eid al-Adha festival.
“When I turned the corner, there was a stampede,” he told Al Jazeera. “I don’t remember anything except that I was bleeding from my eyes, then I passed out for four days.
His parents spent 2 million won ($21,000) on his surgeries, but Khalid’s vision was never restored. He still has over 300 pellets lodged in his face.
“The doctors told me that removing the pellets means 9-10 stitches. This means destroying my face,” he said.
In the midst of his precious treatment, Khalid’s family became impoverished.
“My father is old, but he still works to build houses so that the family does not die of hunger,” he said breaking down. “We wouldn’t wish even on our enemies what has befallen us.”
‘Insulting victims’
Political pundits say Chauhaan is Bollywood’s latest act of “pouring insults” on the victims of Kashmir.
“Since (Narendra) Modi took over as the prime minister of India in 2014, hate has become a thing and many Bollywood directors have continued,” Rakib Hameed Naik, who heads the United States Center for the Study of Organized Hate (CSOH), told Al Jazeera.
“They know that such videos will sell and they will also receive support,” he said. So it is the best way to do business.
Over the years, a section of Bollywood filmmakers has been accused of removing a the number of propaganda films which feeds into policies and programs promoted by Modi’s right-wing Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP). Such films focus on India’s 200 million Muslims through critical issues, including Kashmir and India’s long-standing rivalry with its Muslim-majority neighbor Pakistan.
In 2019, the nationalist Modi government revoked Kashmir’s autonomy and divided the region into two federal territories. The controversial move came in the wake of a months-long military shutdown and internet blackout, during which hundreds of Kashmiris were arrested.
Since then, Naik said, Bollywood has produced several films – Article 370, Baramulla and Kashmir files – justifying the government’s actions, using the popular Islamophobic tools and reducing Kashmiri Muslims to caricatures.
He said that such videos are made to prove BJP’s policies. “It can debunk the criticism of the poor record of human rights and distort the facts, portraying the government as the victim and the Kashmiri people as the aggressors,” Naik said.
Ather Zia, a Kashmiri political analyst and poet, said that Bollywood has historically treated Kashmir “either as a silent place on its issues, or Kashmiris are condemned as black and white caricatures”.
“They are always portrayed as hoarders or as mindless criminals,” Zia told Al Jazeera.
“Infantising, monitoring, invisibility and weaponization of Kashmiris is a reliable option for many blockbusters. This also shows the audience who continue to use such things happily and remain indifferent to Kashmiris, their history, politics and their suffering,” he said.
*The names of the people affected by the pellets have been changed at their request.
