Gippy Grewal recalls seeing Amar Singh Chamkila live on stage: ‘It was the first akhada I attended, he debuted the devotional song…’

Gippy Grewal said that every famous Punjabi singer has, at one point or another, sung Amar Singh Chamkila's songs on stage.

By: Entertainment Desk

New Delhi | May 2, 2024 03:00 PM IST

2 min read

Amar Singh Chamkila and his wife and co-singer Amarjot were shot in 1998.

Imtiaz Ali’s Amar Singh Chamkila released on Netflix recently and like many others, the Diljit Dosanjh-starrer has also impressed actor-singer Gippy Grewal. In a recent interview, Gippy spoke about attending the akhadas of Amar Singh Chamkila as a child and confessed that every famous singer from Punjab has, at one point or another, sang Chamkila’s songs on stage.

Gippy said that he really liked the film and also appreciated how Imtiaz did the casting for the film. “Leave Diljit aside, even the rest of the people, he looked for such great people,” he told Film Companion. Gippy shared that all the famous Punjabi singers, including him and Diljit, have sung Chamkila’s songs on stage and if someone says otherwise, “they are lying.” He also admitted that he has even recorded a few of Chamkila’s songs.

Gippy then recalled that he was quite young when he first attended Chamkila’s akhada, and it was also the first akhada that he ever attended. “In the movie, the way they have shown the akhadas, that’s how they happened in real life too,” he said. He recalled that it was in this akhada that Chamkila introduced the crowd to songwriter Swaran Sivia and sang his first devotional song “Baba Tera Nankana”, even before he recorded it. “He said I’ll record it if you like the song,” Gippy recalled.

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In the film, it was shown that Chamkila started singing devotional songs after he was threatened by militant groups and was given a warning. Chamkila had already become one of the most popular artists of Punjab by then but the content of his songs was seen as vulgar and objectionable by many. Soon after, Chamkila started releasing devotional music and that too, was a big hit.

Gippy is currently promoting his upcoming film Shinda Shinda No Papa, where he stars alongside his son Shinda Grewal

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