Srinagar, Aug. 13 -- Srinagar- The meeting space filled early, and the faces told their own story before a single word was spoken.

Veteran actors sat beside young technicians who had grown up watching Kashmiri dramas on state television, and writers who once filled scripts for DD Kashir traded silent glances with producers who now struggle to find work at all.

On August 13, this landmark gathering of professionals from Jammu and Kashmir's Film and Television industry assembled in Srinagar to confront a crisis that has been building for years and has finally reached a breaking point.

The meeting drew a wide spectrum of the region's creative community: actors, singers, writers, producers, directors, technicians and equipment owners, unit...