Imtiaz Ali wanted Amar Singh Chamkila to be a ‘music film’ not a ‘crime film’, focus was on his love story with music

Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra starred in Imtiaz Ali's Amar Singh Chamkila. The biopic drama released on Netflix last year.

Imtiaz Ali was clear that he wanted Amar Singh Chamkila to focus on the artist's love for music. He did not want the film to play out like an investigation into what led to the murder of the popular singer. In an interview with Komal Nahta on his YouTube channel, Imtiaz shared the reason for showing the murder scene in the introductory few minutes. (Also read: Amar Singh Chamkila review: Diljit Dosanjh delivers a delectable act in this melodious yet tragic musical biopic)

Director Imtiaz Ali at the screening of his film Amar Singh Chamkila.

What Imtiaz said

During the conversation, when Imtiaz was asked why he kept the murder scene in the beginning, he said in Hindi: “At first I had written that this would happen, and then I thought, why did I write it? The good thing about this to me is that this is not a suspense film. I did not want his murder to become the prime aspect of the film. I wanted that this film should not be an investigation. It should not be a crime film. It should be a music film. I wanted to get over with these events early on, so that I could then concentrate, along with the audience, on looking at his love story with music.”

On planning Amar Singh Chamkila

He added why he did not keep the murder in the last bits of the film. “The audience would think is something going to happen to him? The viewer would have picked on the intrigue that something is going to happen, whether he will be killed or not. So, I wanted to take the audience's mind off that thing. The second thing is that it also enabled a sense of greater sympathy for the character who knows what happens to him.”

Amar Singh Chamkila is based on the real-life story of the Punjabi singer and his wife, who were assassinated at a young age. Diljit Dosanjh played the character of Chamkila, whereas Parineeti Chopra played his singer-wife Amarjot. It released on Netflix last year on April 12.