Gippy Grewal reveals he did Mel Karade Rabba for free, sees Carry On Jatta 3 as a pan-India film: ‘Time to take Punjabi cinema to the world’

The Carry On Jatta 3 team launched the trailer of the comedy film in Mumbai in the presence of Bollywood superstar Aamir Khan and comedy king Kapil Sharma. The team emphasised on how, with this film, they want Punjabi cinema to grow and get recognition all over India. “Any film that we take on a bigger platform, on a pan-India level should have something special, something that touches the audiences all across. Our first film — Carry On Jatta 1 — made its own identity, so when the second part came, it became even bigger and reached every Punjabi in the world and even non- Punjabi speaking audience enjoyed the film,” Gippy said.

The Carry On Jatta film franchise has received love from all quarters — the Punjabi audience in and outside of India and the non-Punjabi speaking audience as well. Betting on people’ love, Gippy says he and the film’s team wanted to give this film a pan-India release. He says, “We realised that this audience, the non-Punjabi-speaking audience or the ones outside India watched our film once the film came online, not in theatres. Obviously our cinema is growing day by day, and we wanted it to grow even bigger. We wanted a big Punjabi film to represent our cinema, and if people have heard of a Punjabi film that’s become popular then it has to be Carry On Jatta franchise. There has been a five year gap between the film’s second and third iterations. In these five years we have done everything we could to make it grander, more relatable to the audience, improved the visuals but we have made sure to not let go of our flavour because that’s the USP of our film. It is an out-and-out comedy. It is a tough job to make people laugh, the fun element, the entertainment quotient is big in our film. Now we are promoting and releasing our film in a big way too, to make sure it reaches the audience in a way that they can watch it in theatres wherever they are.”

A lot of regional films have been promoted as pan-India films, especially after SS Rajamouli ‘s Telugu superhits Baahubali and RRR. However, only a few have hit the bull’s eye. Gippy explains, “It is not like that, we aren’t looking at this as a time-bound opportunity. My first film came out in 2010, before that I was only known for songs. At the time our films would do a total business of Rs 12-14 crores, but in the last 10-12 years we have managed to bring it to Rs 60 crores. So, our aim is to invest in the film — making a good product in time, promoting it and releasing it at an appropriate time. Today we are at a place where we think we can make it bigger, take it to the next level. We were seeing what other film industries have done or are doing. Many people I have met personally, Punjabis or non-Punjabis have told me that they have watched Carry On Jatta films and have laughed a lot, many have even narrated several scenes from the films that cracked them up, so we think it is the right film to take to a bigger audience”

Gippy, like Diljit Dosanjh, was a full-time singer before he became an actor. On being asked when did he decide to set aside singing to pursue a career in acting, the actor says it happened organically, like most Punjabi singers who became popular actors.

He says, “When I was younger I wanted to be an actor. However, Punjabi cinema was not really very big, there weren’t many opportunities. Neither did I have much resources, nor a circle in Mumbai so that I could come here and struggle to find acting jobs. I was good at singing, so I sang, and fortunately my music worked. People started taking notice of my work though there too I had to struggle, many videos flopped as well. But one song changed my life, it became very big and I got an identity.”

Gippy’s singing career has been full of some of the most popular Punjabi songs. His single “Phulkari” was very successful in the Punjabi music industry. About how he transitioned from singing to acting, he says, “You know, sometimes not very good stuff works and sometimes even the best of stuff doesn’t work, it happened to me too. Some of my very good songs didn’t work, but some ‘ok’ stuff worked and that change was like whatever I sang became a hit.”

 

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Talking about how he made is acting debut even when he was reluctant to act, he shares, “Around the same time Punjabi films started doing well, the Punjabi cinema started growing immensely. Filmmaker Manmohan Singh left Mumbai and came to Punjab and started making films and was very successful. Producers, at the time, would choose artistes who were hit, to headline their films, and that’s how they also approached me. Initially I rejected a lot of films thinking it wasn’t the right time for me. Then Tips’ Kumar Taurani called me and said he wants me to do a film which also starred Jimmy Shergill. I was offered a second lead role that had grey shades. I was in two minds if I should do the film or not, but Jimmy and the director showed up at my house to discuss the film.”

The actor- singer then revealed that he acted in his debut film for free. “I can never say no, especially to a friend. I believe a lot in friendship, the bond is important to me. So when this film (Mel Karade Rabba) was offered to me, I was financially stable. When they asked me how much I would charge for the film and said the budget is tight, I agreed to do the film for free. I told them that I was doing the film for them, because of our friendship so I won’t charge them for it. I had never imagined that the film would do so well. It became a huge hit and I received a lot of appreciation for my role. It was unbelievable and then I started getting more acting offers. Then I did a film (Jihne Mera Dil Luteya) with Diljit, and it was a hit as well.”