Imtiaz Ali compares Sidhu Moosewala with Amar Singh Chamkila

Imtiaz Ali compares Sidhu Moosewala with Amar Singh Chamkila as he sat for an interview recently. 

The Bollywood director’s upcoming film Chamkila is set to release this year on the occasion of Baisakhi.

Shot in real locations, the upcoming Netflix original will portray the untold story of Amar Singh Chamkila aka Punjab’s original rockstar.

The film stars Diljit Dosanjh as Chamkila often referred to as the ‘Elvis Presley of Punjab’ and Parineeti Chopra as Amarjot, Chamkila’s wife and singing partner, in the lead roles. 

It will premiere on Netflix on April 12.

The film will remind audiences of a young singer who met a tragic fate at 27, similar to Sidhu Moose Wala.

Amar Singh Chamkila ruled the Punjabi music scene back in the 1980s, emerged from a background of poverty, and was assassinated just moments before his performance in Mehsampur, Punjab on March 8, 1988.

Chamkila and his wife Amarjot were killed, along with two members of their band on 8 March 1988 in an assassination that remains unresolved.

In a recent interview, Imtiaz Ali opened up about similarities between Punjabi singer Sidhu Moosewala and Chamkila since the former was also shot dead on May 29, 2022.

Imtiaz Ali said, “The songs that I have heard of Sidhu Moosewala are very different in texture from Chamkila, but one thing is common that they were both extremely popular in the grassroots and they were very influential and they did talk about what was happening around them. So those were the common things.”

He added, “Chamkila was a slave of his audience. He wanted to always please his audience. He could never refuse his audience. This is why he ended up doing more than 365 shows in one year and sometimes these shows were not happening at the same venue. He had to travel to different villages to do these.”

Apart from appearing in the lead roles, both Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra have lent their voices to the film, with the music given by A R Rehman.