We made a film on Chamkila before Imtiaz Ali: Diljit Dosanjh

Imtiaz Ali and A.R. Rehman have come together for the upcoming film ‘Chamkila’ on Netflix. The film is based on the life of revolutionary Punjabi singer Amar Singh Chamkila and stars Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra in the lead.

During a media interaction Diljit explained why he was initially skeptical about this film and said, “I thought I always knew a lot about Chamkila before meeting Imtiaz sir. When I got to know that there is a Hindi film being made on Chamkila, I thought about how they would make it as Chamkila was Punjabi and he sang in Punjabi all his life. I thought they would not be able to do justice to it. So, we made a film called ‘Jodi’ before them, but we did not have the rights to it with us. Because of COVID-19 we could not release our film even though it was ready.”

Incidentally, Diljit was asked to play Chamkila once again. Talking about his first reaction when he was approach for the role, he said, “When I got a call from Imtiaz sir, my first thought was that he would sue us, as he has the rights of Chamkila and I didn’t have it. To my surprise he said, I want to cast you for the film, I told him that we already have the story, if you still think that you want to make a film with me, then we will see. When I heard his perspective, it was completely different; it was a film about Chamkila, which I did not know at all.”

Songs are an important part of this film and Imtiaz Ali has chosen to team up with his ‘Rockstar’ team – composer A.R. Rehman and singer Mohit Chauhan – for this project. Speaking about the music, Diljit said, “When I heard the songs of ‘Chamkila’, I was amazed, as we had a lyricist, singer, and a legend – Rahman sir. Chamkila used to write, compose and sing his own songs. I had doubts about how they would do the music of the film, but when you have AR Rahman, Mohit and Irshad Kamilji, then there is no problem. The songs of ‘Chamkila’ are in Punjabi, but there are Hindi songs being played in the background, it is their interpretation of the original songs. We have original songs from Chamkila. It was a big thing for us that his story was being told in such a big manner. When sir offered me the film, I surrendered to his vision, and got to know some mannerisms of Chamkila in detail.”

Appreciating his co-star Parineeti Chopra, Diljit said, “I was wondering who will play the role of Amarjot, because she was as powerful a singer as Chamkila. To sing like Amarjot is a different thing, but Parineetiji has done very well.”