Filmmaker Imtiaz Ali recently spoke about the relevance of making a film on the late Punjabi singer Amar Singh Chamkila in today’s time. Ali has directed the biopic on the artiste, starring Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra, which releases next week on Netflix. The director said the issues in Chamkila’s life make him supremely relevant even now.
Speaking to sources, the director said, “The subject matter has so many things that make him relevant today, that it did not worry me that people would not relate. His life, the issues in his life make him red-hot relevant right now. For instance, who decides what people should or shouldn’t listen to? The fact that Chamkila was so popular at the grassroot level, but was equally at constant threat by that society, was an interesting dichotomy (to explore).”
Amar Singh Chamkila’s songs focused on a wide range of subjects, including alcoholism and domestic abuse. He, his wife Amarjot Kaur and two members from their band were assassinated in 1988 when he was only 27.
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