Jatt Like That

How Diljit Dosanjh helmed the rise of Punjabi comedy

01 August 2019
Diljit Dosanjh has emerged as the first sardar to have carved a space for himself in films on the national stage, without having to give up his Sikh identity.
kshitij mohan / indian express archive
Diljit Dosanjh has emerged as the first sardar to have carved a space for himself in films on the national stage, without having to give up his Sikh identity.
kshitij mohan / indian express archive

SOMETIME AFTER THE 2005 RELEASE of his third Punjabi pop album, Smile, a young Diljit Dosanjh, only a musician then, gave an interview to Channel Punjabi, dressed in maroon from head to toe, wearing a turban, shirt and bell-bottoms.

The interviewer asked him about the song “Aa Gaye Paggan Pochvian Waale”—The turban lovers are here. “In these times, most people believe that wearing a turban does not look glamorous,” he said. “But you remained confident in how you look. Tell us about how you have this confidence.”

“Most people seem to believe,” Dosanjh responded in Punjabi, “that if a sardar boy ties a turban, he cannot be called good-looking or glamorous. I have nothing against those who have cut their hair. To each his own. But I have no inferiority complex about the turban, as if we are lacking something. Hum kisi se kam nahin”—we are no less than anyone else.

Manik Sharma writes on arts, culture, books and film.

Keywords: Punjabi music Honey Singh
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