It cannot escape your notice that Diljit Dosanjh has arrived in Chandigarh. Posters of him in a Superman-meets-Krrish costume tower over the city’s intersections. The radio host cheerfully announces that Dosanjh is in town, before handing over the mic to the man himself, who then tells his fans, “ Aaj shaam milenge ji , bhangda paane ” (let’s meet this evening and dance together). Fresh from a performance in Delhi the day before to promote his new film, Super Singh , Dosanjh has a concert scheduled in the Capital later that evening. The international villager, or urban pendu, as he likes to call himself, is at the zenith of his swagger. This is the man reigning Punjab’s pop music scene. Some say he’s a worthy successor to the king of yesteryear Punjabi folk Gurdas Mann. Recently he made news for buying a private jet (perks of being a celebrity who doesn’t have the parking issues his Mumbai-based peers do). The Ludhiana resident was also in the news for commenting in Punjabi on an Instagram post by Kendall Jenner, one of the Kardashian sisters and an object of his self-confessed crush. When he was awarded Filmfare’s Best Debut trophy last year for his turn as an honest cop in Udta Punjab , many of his fans bristled at the ‘newcomer’ tag for this famous son of Punjab. But Dosanjh, gracious as always, clarified that the award meant a lot to him, and that he hoped it would ease the way for other Punjabi actors waiting to enter the Mumbai film industry.
At Chandigarh’s Hyatt Regency hotel, where he’s doing promos for Super Singh , a movie that sees him playing the first-ever onscreen Sikh superhero, the entrance to the conference room is flanked by eight bodyguards in black. Inside, the morning room is mostly empty, and in a far corner the cast and director of Super Singh are seated in front of a huge poster of the movie. Placed between director Abhishek Chaubey and actor Sonam Bajwa, Dosanjh appears casual in a Toronto Maple Leafs sweatshirt (Toronto’s ice-hockey team uniform) and his trademark ripped jeans.
The Jalandhar-born artist’s sartorial choices are strongly influenced by the diasporic Punjabi community, which makes up a large portion of his fan base.
Settling down for the interview, Dosanjh readily opens up about wanting to play a superhero in reel-life, “I know superhero films are not that common in this country, but the director Anurag and I have long wished to make one. Anurag
A veteran of 20 films since debuting in Mel Karaade Rabba (2010), he nevertheless has the pre-release jitters. “While the character is larger-than-life, it will only matter if the film works for the audience. Till then, I’m slightly scared, even though my fans have always showered me with love. I got a lot of love for my previous films Jatt and Juliet and Punjab 1984 as well.”
That love can, at times, prove to be too much of a good thing. Especially for someone like him with an active online presence. “While there have been no cases of stalking as such, it’s a full-time job to handle my fan base. When I sleep, I switch off my phone, but when I wake up I must check for Snapchat, Instagram... it’s buzzing 24 hours. No one has my number. I change my phone number every 15-20 days. Except for my family, everyone keeps in touch with me through my managers.”
Growing up in a village near Jalandhar, Dosanjh was closely associated with music since his childhood. He sang kirtans and the shabad, and learnt to play the harmonium at the local gurudwara. He debuted on the professional music scene in 2004 with an album titled Ishq da Uda Uda , but it was his hit song ‘Lak 28 kudi da’, a collaboration with Honey Singh in the film Lion of Punjab , that propelled him to fame outside the State. The track was No 1 on the official Asian Download Chart in the UK. He’s had several hits since then, and worked with top Punjabi pop artists including Badshah and Jassi brothers. He toured the UK to sold-out audiences in 2016.
His popular songs such as ‘Laembadgini’, ‘Panj Tara’ (5 Star), Ambarsariya are pastoral, the refrain of the pagg wala munda (the guy in a turban), the well-travelled villager, who often sings of rejection, or the build-up to love. His wardrobe is carefully curated to craft a ‘villager-gone-hipster’ profile. In ‘Laembadgini’, for instance, his checked lungi is paired with a casual blazer. The white turban is matched by white sneakers. And, of course, the shades are de rigueur. Urban pendu indeed.
In keeping with this international villager/urban pendu image, Dosanjh doesn’t shy away from publicly declaring his love interest — the American model, reality TV star and social media personality Kendall Jenner. He scolded her with a ‘ Fittey Muh ’ (loosely translated to loser) comment on a photograph of her cosying up with her boyfriend. On yet another photo he despaired, ‘ Hatdi na Tu ’ (You won’t stop, will you)? On her half-sister Kim Kardashian’s Instagram live, he demanded, ‘Kendall kithe aa (where is Kendall)?
Evidently he does a lot of ‘keeping up with the Kardashians’. When asked about his crush, Dosanjh blushed. “Next question,” he said.
He has even gone so far as to create an entire music video, ‘Do You Know’, in which the actor closely resembles Kendall Jenner. It shows how he brings the girl home to meet his parents. Tweeting the video link to Jenner, he proposed in another tweet, ‘kithey an Ni Kudey.. aa ja Video Karna Ek’ (Where are you, girl? We have a video to make together). As for replies... well, that’s a different story, unfortunately.
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Dosanjh has a serious side to him, as well, an earnestness about his Sikh identity. His films touch on socio-political issues, and Sikh identity politics at an international level. Dosanjh, however, is anxious to play down any political inferences. “ Punjab 1984 wasn’t a political film. Mai toh kisi film me leader nahi banaa , aur na bannaa chahta hoon . Ek element agar political ho , woh poore film ko political nahi banaata (I haven’t become a leader in any film, nor do I want to become one. If there is a political element in a film, it doesn’t make it a political film). It is a mother-son film, purely emotional. It has a balanced viewpoint; no political sides have been taken,” he insists. Politics is what happens to a film once it is about to be released, he laughs. “ Mujhe changi na lagdi , I don’t like such roles.”
Super Singh , however, has plenty of references that are unmistakably political. Its two main villains — the white kurta-clad politician who wants to become Punjab’s chief minister, and the sant who wants to usurp power and become the next rab after Guru Gobind Singh — too closely resemble real-life figures to escape conjectures.
Super Singh the superhero (no spoilers here) saves Punjab from not only a physical calamity but also a religious one. His superpower is clearly drawn through prayers to the sachha badshah (true king), Guru Gobind Singh, the last guru of the Khalsa. Stretching the allegory further, he gets his special powers from wearing a saffron turban. The saffron colour, along with blue and white, is holy to the Sikhs.
The saffron pugdi also featured in many of the songs in Sikh, a religious album in which Dosanjh sang and acted in 2012. Typically, he dons it whenever he delivers a social message on screen. In the song ‘Gobind de Lal’, from Sikh, he’s wearing the orange turban as he extols the virtues of being a Sikh, Guru Gobind’s chosen one, and the protection it bestows against the bad world.
In ‘Nanki da Veer’, he is cutting wheat in a field as a religious procession passes by. In another frame he is seen teaching children, giving food to a poor person.
True, a majority of his songs obssess about the usual tropes of Punjabi pop — cars, women, love, machismo, but he’s also come out with plenty others that hold up a mirror to society, in the tradition of respected folk singers such as Gurdass Mann.
His Punjabi identity is stamped all over him, both on and off-screen. He is a turban-wearing ‘jatt’ at all times, and none of his movies have ever attempted to place him anywhere else. He’s gone on record saying how he was saddened when he found out that Anushka Sharma, his co-star in Phillauri , wasn’t a Punjabi. In the film he plays a pre-Independence poet who is looked down upon by his love interest as someone who merely sings for entertainment, rather than using his talent for the higher purpose of social reform. He ends up becoming a freedom fighter.
If you’re on a mixed YouTube playlist, you would be hard-pressed to reconcile the image of this Dosanjh with that of the urban pendu, the star of ‘Panj Taara’. There the lungi-turban wearing Dosanjh carries his own khaat (cot) to the five-star theka (I drank away all my anger towards you in a five-star bar), accompanied by his entourage. Punjabi pop songs are heavily influenced by the hip-hop culture, there is a fair bit of rap in Punjabi, and the obsession with flashy cars, bragging about drinking prowess, and objectifying women. Dosanjh says he doesn’t like doing such songs, but knows it’s what makes him popular and keeps his fans happy. Together with Honey Singh he had worked on a song called ‘15 saal’, which talks about underage girls drinking and partying, but had ultimately decided not to release it as he thought it inappropriate. He had then apologised to his fans for “disappointing” them.
“I’m a singer first, then an actor. I don’t think I’m a kamaal ka gawaaiya (singing genius). So yes, everything is by chance,” he says with characteristic candour. According to him, the regional music industry is currently thriving in Punjab, and that has led to its mainstreaming.
“Punjabi music industry gives you the space to survive as a solo artist,” he says. Now that he has worked in Bollywood, that too in the hit film Udta Punjab , which brought him much notice, he feels it isn’t all that different from the Punjab film industry in its style of working. “Bollywood and Punjabi film industry are differentiated only by the budgets. Here you have to give the same quality for less money. So the work is more here. Things are easier in Bollywood because they have the money; we have to work extra hard to get the same level of production values.”
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Dosanjh is enjoying all the adulation coming his way right now. “ Dekhiye aaj kal shelf-life heroes ki badi kam hundi aa (heroes have a short shelf-life these days). The good part about working in the Punjabi film industry is that fans still support you and love you for longer, once you’ve won their hearts.”
The singer-actor googles himself regularly, and keeps close tabs on his social media. Unlike some celebrities who have their accounts managed by others, he personally handles his social media posts.
In Super Singh , the Sikh superhero might be busy saving the day, but he still needs to take a break to scratch his bum (mind! with an iron rod). He’s the hero and jester rolled into one — a trope that’s very popular in Punjabi movies. As the ultimate superhero, he can make money disappear from the hands of corrupt gurudwara workers and give it to those in need. So much so, even Spiderman (a Punjabi, of course) comes to him for money.
His co-star Sonam Bajwa in Punjab 1984 , Sardaarji 2 , and Super Singh , says he is “fun to be with on set, and someone from whom there’s always a lot to learn.”
His director Anurag Singh concurs, “In real life, the fun element is a part of his personality. We’ve tried to give a message through this film, something which he feels strongly about as well. I’ve always had a fun working-relationship with him ever since our first film together, Punjab 1984 . He’s always game for trying new things, and doesn’t worry whether it goes with his image or not.”
Dosanjh’s character is seen struggling with his Sikh identity in Super Singh . Living in Canada and feeling ‘othered’, he aspires for whiteness, jokingly calling himself 90 per cent a white person in one scene. Many of the film’s gags are drawn from this.
“He keeps talking about himself: Ek toh mai Singh duja mai angrez (a proud Sikh and an Englishman, on top of it/ sharp/ glamorous/ Ironman,” he deadpans in the film many a time.
However, in the end, he returns to Punjab, to be the bholu kaka (good boy) that he insists is the real him, a son of the soil. Throughout Super Singh , Dosanjh insists on speaking to the girl he’s pursuing, a white person who tells him she’s unfamiliar with Sikhs, in Punjabi. The translations are intermittent.
In fact, I feel limited writing this article in English. Diljeet Dosanjh makes the most sense in Punjabi, and he knows it. Pagg wala munda kenhdi baahla jachda (The guy in the turban looks really good)...