Actor Atul Kulkarni visited Pahalgam just days after the terrorist attack which left over 26 dead and many more injured. The actor gave a message for all Indians to travel to the region and not cancel their plans due to the recent attacks.
He shared a photo from Pahalgam, sitting by the river and wrote a small poem in Hindi in the caption, highlighting its beauty and how Kashmir is a crucial part of India.
Speaking to BBC Hindi, Atul called the terror attack ‘tragic’, saying that it shouldn’t have happened. “When I read about it, I thought that every time something like this happened, what would we do? We post on social media, we talk to friends, we write something, but then I thought, what can I actually do in real action? I read that 90 per cent of the bookings here had been cancelled, even though it's peak season. We need to support Kashmiriyat and the Kashmiri people,” he said.
He added, “People were coming here in huge numbers since the last 1-2 years. If we stop suddenly, the relationship that was getting formed between Kashmir and mainland shouldn't stop...The terrorists gave us the message, 'Don't come here'. No, we will come here, it's our Kashmir, we will come here and that too in significant numbers. I request people not to cancel their bookings. Come here, it's very safe here. If you have decided to travel somewhere, cancel that and come to Kashmir.”
Atul is known for acting in films like, Rang De Basanti (2006), Chandni Bar (2001) and The Ghazi Attack (2017), among others. He was recently seen in the second season of the web-series Bandish Bandits.
