After having assisted directors such as Manmohan Singh and Sriram Raghavan, Ajay K Pannalal, who is Hindi music director Jaidev Kumar’s brother, debuts as a director with the upcoming Punjabi film, Dil Tainu Karda Ae Pyar. “I got many opportunities to make a debut as a director with a Hindi film. But I chose Punjabi film industry above Bollywood to start my career with,” smiles Ajay.
At Chandigarh Press Club in Sector 27, on Tuesday, where the cast and crew of Dil Tainu Karda Ae Pyar came for its promotion, Ajay was accompanied by actor Gulzar Chahal, female lead Neetu Singh (former PTC Miss Punjaban) and Rohit Khurana (former TV actor).
Backed by what they call a ‘top notch’ cinematographer, Anil Singh, who has been a part of Hindi blockbusters such as Chak De India, the film’s makers say it will surely make a difference at the box office when it releases on November 2. They are also proud of the fact that the film doesn’t star any singer as actor, about which Gulzar opines, “Our young team is our strength and experienced people our back bone. With singers as actors, it becomes a compulsion to focus on songs more than the script. For an industry to grow, there is a need of an equal inflow of non-singer actors.”
About the word ‘Jatt’ being featured commonly in film titles, Gulzar adds, “There is excessive use of this term. Like other cinemas, Punjabi cinema should also be about variety.” Voicing his endeavour to help the region’s film industry grow at a global scale, the actor-producer adds that his heart belongs to Punjab. “Mumbai is too hard a place for me and I am not the kind to brag about Mumbai tag. To run a production house and work on acting projects here, I need to be present here, else my work would suffer,” adds he.
{{/usCountry}}About the word ‘Jatt’ being featured commonly in film titles, Gulzar adds, “There is excessive use of this term. Like other cinemas, Punjabi cinema should also be about variety.” Voicing his endeavour to help the region’s film industry grow at a global scale, the actor-producer adds that his heart belongs to Punjab. “Mumbai is too hard a place for me and I am not the kind to brag about Mumbai tag. To run a production house and work on acting projects here, I need to be present here, else my work would suffer,” adds he.
{{/usCountry}}On taking his role of a film producer seriously, Gulzar says he is different from a ‘builder with money’ in having a passion for films. The film, which is produced by Kenesis Films, has songs with voices lent by Harbhajan Mann, Babbu Mann and Feroz Khan among others.
Neetu Singh, 22, who makes her debut in Punjabi cinema with Dil Tainu Karda Ae Pyar, says she doesn’t think the industry here has any competition for female actors, since “there is a need of new and beautiful faces.”