Amar Singh Chamkila confessed to Amarjot that he was already married, then they eloped, recalls their songwriter friend Sivia

Amar Singh Chamkila's songwriter friend Swaran Sivia shared why the late singer got married to Amarjot Kaur despite being married to Gurmail Kaur.

Amar Singh chamkila second marriage amarjot

Amar Singh Chamkila was already married when he tied the knot with Amarjot Kaur (right).

Singer Amar Singh Chamkila, whose biopic, starring Diljit Dosanjh, is currently streaming on Netflix, was popularly known as the ‘Elvis of Punjab’. Chamkila was starting to gain popularity in his home state when he met Amarjot Kaur, who eventually became his second wife. But the public didn’t know that he was already married to Gurmail Kaur and had kids with her. In an earlier interview with RPD 24, songwriter Swaran Sivia recalled the time when Chamkila got married to Amarjot, and what led to this decision.

Sivia, who worked closely with Chamkila, shared that the singer initially started performing at akhadas and recording albums with Surinder Sonia, but since Sonia was way more popular than Chamkila when he started, she took the bigger cut of the profits. “Chamkila and Sonia charged Rs 800 for an akhada but he only got Rs 200. Chamkila asked for more money, as he believed that he was doing almost 75% of the work by writing the songs. Her manager, who was also her husband, refused. The tips also went to Sonia. Chamkila asked for 50% but they said we will only give you Rs 250. Chamkila refused and their partnership broke,” he recalled.

It was during this time that singer Kuldeep Manak introduced Amarjot to Chamkila, Since he sang at a higher scale, their voices were compatible, and before long, they started performing together. Sivia said that Amarjot was a well-educated woman, who had the pipes to match Chamkila’s scale. Since they were starting to do so well together, Chamkila’s associate Kesar Singh Tikki suggested that they get married to each other. “Tikki said that Chamkila should get married to her or she will get married to someone else and go away,” Sivia claimed. He also suggested that Chamkila had found a perfect partner in Amarjot, and it was not possible for him to look for different singing partners every few months.

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Chamkila proposed this idea to Amarjot and she was seemingly okay with it. “She said, ‘I am okay with it, but you are married to someone else already’. Chamkila said. ‘We’ll have to risk it’. Chamkila also told her, ‘Right now you get paid for the akhadas and the records, if we get married, you will be the owner of everything’. She agreed,” Sivia shared. Soon after this, Chamkila and Amarjot eloped.

Sivia claimed that the two went to Phagwara and stayed there for a month, and in the meanwhile, some of Chamkila’s friends spoke to Amarjot’s father and got him to agree to this arrangement. When Gurmail Kaur, Chamkila’s first wife, learnt about this, “she had to compromise.” Sivia said that Chamkila never shirked away from his responsibilities towards Gurmail or his two daughters from the first marriage. “He paid the household expenses and took care of all the monetary needs of the house. He also visited Gurmail frquently,” Sivia shared.

In the Imtiaz Ali film, Parineeti Chopra’s Amarjot is shown to be unaware of Chamkila’s marital status until after they get married.

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