Imtiaz Ali gets emotional at Chamkila premiere: ‘He was roof-breaker artiste, so film had to be houseful’

Before the screening began, Imtiaz stood with his team and clicked pictures. When the movie premiere began, the auditorium was full and the filmmaker went to the top-most row, but there was no seat. Later, of course, as the film began Imtiaz found a seat and watched the film with the audience. The premiere was hosted by Netflix in association with MAMI Mumbai Film Festival.

When Amar Singh Chamkila got over, the audience greeted Imtiaz with applause, as he made his way to the screen — looking visibly emotional — for a quick discussion on the film. As Imtiaz was asked what was going on in his mind, he said, “That we have just made the film, but they have lived the life”.

The untold true story of Punjab’s original rockstar of the masses, Amar Singh Chamkila follows the story of the titular musician, who emerged from the shadows of poverty and rose to the heights of popularity in the 80s. He was gunned down at the age of 27.

“It is very rarely that a filmmaker gets to watch his own film because usually you are working on it, and that’s not the same as viewing it. Today I got a chance to watch the whole film, this has happened only one time in my life before. When I was watching the film, I was constantly thinking of Chamkila. Before the show started, we were talking about how there are so many people here, it is more than houseful and then I thought to myself why won’t it happen?

“Chamkile ka ek bhi gaana aisa nahi hai joi hit nahi hai, Chamkile ka ek bhi akahada aisa nahi hai jo over full nahi hua. He is the roof breaker artiste, this is his film it had be houseful. It is owing to him. I really felt that there is some spirit, which is the ‘hit spirit’, woh aata hai, toh log aate hai. Chamkila is that,” he said.

The film features Parineeti Chopra as Amarjot Kaur. Amar Singh Chamkila is set to release on Netflix on April 12.

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