Globally acclaimed filmmaker Gurinder Chadha, who is all set for the India release of her latest movie, The Christmas Karna, on the 12th of December, spoke to IANS about successfully managing to rope in global star Priyanka Chopra Jonas for a special song for the movie.
Talking about her collaboration with PeeCee, Gurinder told IANS, “I called Priyanka, whom I have known for a long time. PeeCee is a great supporter of everyone in the diaspora, all of us doing our own thing, and she is always there to support us. Except this time, she said, ‘No, I can’t do this. I am not a singer.
Are you mad?’ And I told her, ‘It will be so much fun! It’s for the end titles. You know how I do things at the end, with full ‘Tamasha’ it’ll be fun. My dog will be there, and we will just have a great time.’ Gurinder added, ‘Eventually, Priyanka said, ‘Okay, it sounds like fun.’
She was in London, so she came to the studio. She laughed and said, ‘You’re mad, but let’s do it.’ She even corrected some of the Hindi, and then she sang so beautifully.” The filmmaker added how internationally acclaimed Sitar player Anushka Shankar came on board “After that, I called Anushka Shankar, who is also a friend, and said, ‘Come and play with us.’
Anushka came as well and said, ‘You’re mad, but I’ll support you.’ She played a beautiful sitar version of ‘Last Christmas.’” For the uninitiated, Priyanka Chopra Jonas for the song ‘Last Christmas’ has turned it into her desi-flavoured reinvention of Wham!’s all-time classic ‘Last Christmas’.
On this collaboration, Priyanka Chopra Jonas, in a statement, had said, “Gurinder Chadha has been one of the very few stalwarts in entertainment that has championed stories of the Indian diaspora globally and consistently with absolute authenticity and heart.""She is a dear friend, and I am so happy to support her in my little way in Christmas Karma.
I hope this desi twist to a song that has long been the soundtrack of Christmas for so many of us resonates with audiences," she added. Talking about ‘Christmas Karma’, it is a festive, fresh and feel-good musical adaptation of the Charles Dickens classic ‘A Christmas Carol’ and sees Kunal Nayyar (‘The Big Bang Theory’) as the lead. The film also stars Leo Suter, Pixie Lott, Charithra Chandran, Danny Dyer and Hugh Bonneville.