No one makes serious cinema seriously: Amberdeep Singh

Writer of Punjabi periodic flick ‘Angrej’ tells how Punjabi cinema lacks the zeal for making serious films

5 Dariya News (Ajay pahwa)

Ludhiana 22-Jul-2015

Last day of this month will see the release of Punjabi flick ‘Angrej’ which is a light hearted comedy. The protagonists of the story are finding themselves in a tangled love story and spontaneous comic situations. With Amrinder Gill playing the lead, the film also stars Ammy Virk, Binnu Dhillon, Aditi Sharma, Sargun Mehta and Sardar Sohi. Simerjit Singh has directed the film. Amarbir Singh Sandhu, Jaspal Singh Sandhu, Aman Khatkar & Sameer Dutta have produced the film while Sukhjinder Bhachu, Amber Deep Singh & Karaj Gill are the co-producers. Amber Deep Singh has penned the story.

Writer Amberdeep Singh has been writing a number of projects as a dialogue writer, story writer and a screenplay writer too. Not only Punjabi films, but he has written many known TV series while working from Mumbai. Now his next project ‘Angrej’ is releasing on 31st July which is a periodic film about the love stories of 1945 Punjab. Amberdeep believes that connecting with youth is the most important thing while writing a script and that’s what he did for ‘Angrej’. Also he talks about the scope of serious writing in Punjabi cinema with his own perspective.

Amberdeep belongs to Abohar Fazilka (Punjab) and as a student he could never decide what to choose for his career. He had interest in theatre and was doing plays since college days. There was a day when he could not move beyond his B.Com. degree and he let his father decide for him. The supportive dad asked him to pursue what he likes and what fetches him good money. He says, “My father supported me and I chose master’s degree in theatre and TV at Punjabi University, Patiala. During the two-year course I had decided to move to Mumbai for my career. I started as an assistant director but unfortunately the projects never took off. But personally I liked my pen throwing words out and I continued.” The writer worked for Punjabi projects like Chak De Fatte, Jatt & Juliet-2, Singh vs Kaur, Daddy Cool Munde Fool, Dil Vil Pyar Vyar, Goreyan Nu Daffa Karo and now Angrej. He also worked for Comedy Circus for almost 4-5 years and penned some initial episodes of Comedy Nights With Kapil too.

Talking about Angrej, Amberdeep said, “I used to wonder how a typical Indian wedding would look like in ancient Punjab. Those were the days when the baraat would arrive three days prior to the wedding and all the baraatis would visit the bride except the groom. The culture, the food, the joy, everything I wanted to show to the youth of today.” Amberdeep knew from day one that the character of the protagonist would suit Amrinder Gill. Although there were some changes made on the set as per the director’s visualization, Amberdeep takes it normally. He said, “Everyone has his own way of perceiving things and so happens on the set of every film. But the final result here is absolutely close to what I had visualized. The film looks superb.”Next question was about serious writing in Punjabi cinema, to which Amberdeep replies, “No one makes serious cinema seriously.” Further he said, “Even if you are making a comedy project, seriousness matters equally. We call Punjabi cinema comedy-oriented but we have seen a lot of comedy films doomed. Out of desperation some projects are initiated and ultimately land up on the ground of failure. The problem actually is of not finding a producer for a serious script. The economy doesn’t work.”Amberdeep signs off telling his desire of writing a biopic on some personality from Punjab but he did not reveal much about it. At the moment he’s keeping fingers crossed for ‘Angrej’.