Uttarakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami sat down with one of Bollywood's biggest draws on Sunday, 18 October 2026, turning the Chief Minister's official residence in Dehradun into a pitching room for the state's film ambitions — with Akshay Kumar as the audience.

Dhami described the encounter as a warm, substantive exchange — 'aatmiya bhet' (a heartfelt meeting) — focused on the state's new film policy, the vast scope for productions across its terrain, and a concrete goal: establishing Uttarakhand as one of India's premier film destinations.

What the CM told Akshay Kumar

The conversation covered three pillars the state is building its film pitch around: natural beauty, cultural heritage, and what Dhami called a filmmaker-friendly policy environment. His office's message was clear — Uttarakhand is no longer just a scenic backdrop that productions stumble upon; it wants to be a planned, incentivised destination that filmmakers seek out deliberately.

Beyond aesthetics, Dhami stressed an economic ambition that goes beyond box-office glory. The state's stated aim is to generate fresh employment for local youth — in crew roles, logistics, hospitality, and ancillary services — by building a sustained production ecosystem rather than chasing one-off shoots.

Why Uttarakhand has long been Bollywood's backdrop

The pitch is not starting from zero. Uttarakhand's Himalayan ranges, river valleys, and ancient pilgrimage towns have drawn film crews for decades, providing visual variety that few Indian states can match — snow peaks, dense forests, and old stone temples within hours of each other. What has historically been informal and opportunistic, the Dhami government now wants to formalise into structured policy with clear incentives.

This fits a broader pattern across Indian states. From Rajasthan's palaces to Jammu and Kashmir's meadows, state governments have increasingly recognised that a single high-profile film can move tourism needle more than months of conventional advertising. Uttarakhand is looking to convert its natural endowment into a repeatable economic engine.

Akshay Kumar's pull as a policy messenger

The choice of interlocutor matters. Akshay Kumar commands a production footprint and a public profile that make him an effective ambassador for any destination he endorses — and he has a track record of engaging with state and central government initiatives. A well-timed endorsement, or a future production set against Uttarakhand's mountains, could do more for inbound film traffic than any policy document alone.

The specifics of the new film policy — incentive structures, subsidy slabs, single-window clearances — remain to be detailed publicly. But the signal from Sunday's meeting is unmistakable: Uttarakhand is actively courting Bollywood's biggest names, and it is doing so at the Chief Minister's table.

The mountains have always been the draw. Now the government wants to be part of the deal.