When Anandi, one of television's most popular leading ladies, married Shiv in Balika Vadhu (Colors), it was a much-anticipated event among the show's viewers. To mark the beginning of Anandi's new, happy life, makers of Balika Vadhu decided to show the couple on honeymoon. Their destination of choice was India's own paradise, Kashmir. "We had the option of going to an international destination such as the US or Dubai. We chose Kashmir because it is exotic yet believable since the characters are essentially villagers," says Prashant Bhatt, Weekday Programming Head, Colors. Kashmir first made an appearance on Indian television in 1991 with the show Gul Gulshan Gulfaam that aired on DD National. Centred around the impact terrorism was having on life in the Valley, it was indicative of what would follow in the region. Soon after, the terror-torn state became inaccessible and Kashmir — once a favourite among filmmakers — almost vanished from the screen, both big and small.

This changed recently when the government started to once again promote tourism in the region. After major Bollywood films such as Yash Chopra's Jab Tak Hai Jaan and Imtiaz Ali's Rockstar and yet-to-release Highway shot sequences in Kashmir, the Valley began to gain weight among television producers too. Apart from Balika Vadhu, Jaan, a love story that will go on air next month on Life OK, and the latest small-screen adaptation of Mahabharat for Star Plus have also explored Kashmir. Both Bhatt and Saurabh Tewari, whose Nautanki Films produces Jaan, believe that the way was shown by Chopra, who shot chunks of his multi-starrer, big-budget film in the Valley. While Balika Vadhu and Mahabharat use Kashmir for cosmetic reasons, Tewari says the locale is an integral part of Jaan as the story revolves around a girl from a Kashmiri Pandit family.