Ever since its early days, Hindi cinema owes a lot to Panjab. From the beginning in the 1940s Panjabi actors, costumes, music, and locations have dominated Hindi cinema. In fact, Hindi cinema played a major role in popularizing Panjab’s music and language all over the country and abroad. Yet, through the earlier decades, the portrayal of Sikhs was mostly a stereotype and often a caricature, functioning as comic relief. This is changing with a new wave of cinema, especially on Over The Top (OTT) platforms. The last few years have seen shows like Kohrra on father-son relationships, CAT on extrajudicial killings and Tabbar on family values, albeit their oversimplified Sikh and Panjab narratives. Films like Jogi and shows like Grahan deal with the 1984 Sikh Genocide. Shah Rukh Khan’s recent comedy Dunki is on illegal migration and Imtiaz Ali’s upcoming film Chamkila is on slain singer Amar Singh Chamkila. These stories are replacing rose-tinted Yash Chopra fantasies of lush green and yellow mustard fields. A new crop of Panjabi actors is bringing to life a realistic Panjabi face in cinema. Panjabi content delves into the murkiest depths of the state—from militancy to police corruption and the shadowy dynamics of the music industry. While there is no doubt Panjab sells, the projection still remains over the top and is mainly about drugs, caste, gun violence, murders, and sexuality. In these new offerings, Panjab comes across as the badlands. These cinematic representations reiterate mainstream media projection of Panjab being a crime-ridden state. In order to not fall for stereotypes, the need is for the community to play a greater role in financing and controlling film production (SDW Vol. 1 Issue 12, Story 10)
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