There was a time when majority of the Bollywood hits were made by Punjabi artists, today there may be a difference from before, but it is not that Punjab no longer has actors, there is no stage, everything is there and top artists are also present.
Now you will think that if everything is there, then why is the singer the hero of Punjabi film? Then it is not seen how expert he is in acting, it is only seen how much fan following he has as a singer, which he can benefit from. I am not saying that thinking like this or making a film thinking like this is a bad thing, but going on this scale will be a bad thing for many artists who have been struggling in theatre for years. No matter how well prepared they are in acting, they still have to hustle for small roles.
On the other hand, if one of your albums has come in the market and you have found people who want it, then you can get a good role. The theatre artists who are struggling in places like Jalandhar’s Deshbhagat Yagdar Hall, Amritsar, Chandigarh, Patiala, Phagwara, Moga etc., on what hope are they struggling. Of course, a theatre artist would get peace at that place, but how long can a housemate watch a show, the family has to support everyone. One thing is that if capable artists work in films, the standard of the film will also rise.
There is a big trend among our Punjabi film producers that if a film with the title Jatt is released, everyone will try to grab that title, if a comedy film is released, everyone will start making comedy films, if someone takes a good concept of ancient Punjab and the film is liked by the people and becomes a hit, then for the next 10-15 years only films of ancient Punjab will be seen. They do not take risks with variety. That is why variety always remains.
In most of the films, you can guess what the story will be by looking at the poster, and it turns out to be almost the same. There are actors like Gurdas Maan, Amrinder Gill and Diljit Dosanjh who are amazing at singing and acting, and there are some others too. The pure actor Jimmy Shergill has turned to Hindi films, Gurpreet Ghuggi, Jaswinder Bhalla, Binnu Dhillon, Nirmal Rishi and some good actors are performing, but if we talk about it as a whole, the old ones are not there anymore, there are also good actors among the new ones who are struggling in the theater and there is a lack of discerning directors who can test them and bring them forward. That is why the standard of Punjabi films is not being established. In fact, the good actors who are there are pushed into comedy only, whereas they can have the potential to present many forms of art, it is said that people come to cinema halls only for comedy, but this is not the case, comedy may be one form, but there are many admirers and discerners of the art, there is a need to provide variety.
Punjabi writers are also very good but perhaps they are not given a chance to show their talent and are forced to write only one type of story. Earlier, South Indian films were not liked everywhere because of showing too many underdogs, but today they are beating even Bollywood. How many artists from Punjab are earning money by working in South Indian films. The quality that was present in earlier Punjabi films when singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Mohammed Rafi, Asha Bhosle, Mahendra Kapoor were also ready to sing in Punjab films, that standard needs to be re-established. But for that, the producers will pick up the stories of quality storytellers and bring them forward after seeing the acting of the actors. Only then can Punjabi films move away from a niche and move towards variety. For this, our governments need to provide all kinds of support, and now our Chief Minister is also an artist himself. If this cannot happen now, then it will be difficult in the future.
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