Diljit Dosanjh in tears as Imtiaz Ali praises him for Chamkila

“A few days ago someone told me that Diljit, with whom you were shooting in villages in Punjab playing Chamkila, but he himself is a bigger star. It struck me then. The way Diljit has performed in a land where everybody is actually scared to even look at him because he’s such a big star. In the small town Punjab, when he was acting Chamkila, he himself didn’t know who he was. He thought he was Chamkila and because of that even I didn’t realise that he is Diljit Dosanjh.

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“He was just Chamkila. Everyone on set felt the same, that this is unfolding in real time. Diljit wasn’t there. When someone does something like this, it becomes memorable. The same goes for Parineeti. Later several things about Diljit struck me, ki aap kya cheez ho. You’ve already achieved a lot but I can bet that this is just your beginning. Wherever you go, we will be with you. I’m very happy that this freshness came into my life,” Imtiaz said.

Even as the filmmaker was finishing his sentence, Diljit had started to become emotional. By the end of Imtiaz’s answer, Diljit was completely in tears, taking a moment to soak in the filmmaker’s comments as the stage fell silent for a brief minute.

Chamkila follows the untold true story of Punjab’s original rockstar of the masses, Amar Singh Chamkila, who emerged from the shadows of poverty and rose to the heights of popularity in the 80s through his biggest asset– music. He was gunned down at the age of 27. The film is now gearing to release on April 12 on Netflix.

Diljit said he was “always ready” to headline an Imtiaz Ali film, but would wonder if the filmmaker would ever consider him for his films, that is, until he got a call from him for Chamkila, which he initially felt was an impossible film to make in Hindi.

“The news was out already that Imtiaz sir was making a film on Chamkila, but I thought nahi bana payenge kyuki gaane toh Punjabi mein hai, Chamkila toh Hindi mein bann nahi sakta. But sir’s take was unique.Chamkila sang songs for people on stage, but what was his personal story, what could’ve been his songs, his journey.

“I never looked at it this way. Then, of course, AR Rahman sir was doing its music, the film is coming on Netflix, what can be bigger than this? When you see the film you’ll realise how hard even Parineeti has worked for it. If Chamkila is listening to it, I hope he’s proud of what we have done,” he added