The Rise of Punjabi Cinema

*By- Harshita Prashar

With a country so magnificently obsessed with the Khans and Kapoors of the Hindi film fraternity, the success of regional films is a miracle. Over the years, the South and Bengal industries have tirelessly worked and achieved fame and recognition for their volume of work in their particular regions. And the same can be said for the Punjab film industry as it is a huge phenomenon today. From the songs to the dance steps to the locations to the actors to the stories, everything has changed and evolved with time resulting in the Punjabi cinema gaining a nationwide appreciation for its content today. However, whatever it has attained is not a result of a day’s hard work but decades. And people should be made familiar with the journey of a regional film industry becoming a multi-millionaire industry.

 It all goes back to the days before partition when Lahore and Amritsar were united, released Punjab’s first feature silent film, Daughters of Today. This film not only gave birth to the shooting capital of Lahore but also introduced individuals, who later went on to become eminent personalities in the Bombay film fraternity, A. R. Kardar, and M. Ismael. In a short while, Punjab’s first sound film, Heer Ranjha, released and opened the doors of the entertainment world to this land of five rivers.

But this success was short-lived. After the bloody and gruesome partition, the film capital got divided and the industry suffered many losses, not only in terms of money and equipment but also great actors like Prithviraj Kapoor, Dilip Kumar and Dev Anand and singers such as K.L. Saigal, Mohammed Rafi, Noorjahan, and Shamshad Begum, who migrated to the Bombay industry. After that, many attempts to keep the industry alive were made, but the success of Hindi films and the downfall of Punjabi films failed to ignite the craze for regional films in this province. It is ironic that Punjabi cinema was not reviving, even though it were the Punjabis who were making a mark in the Hindi industry.

Even after almost 20 years, while makers did not lose hope and kept on making films to cater its audience the industry was turning weaker by the day. Then came a turning point in the 1960s. In 1964, Balraj Sahni starred in Sutlej De Kande and somehow altered the history of this regional cinema. The film became a roaring hit and went on to win the national film award. A few years later, a spiritual motion picture called Nanak Nam Jahaz Hai, featuring Prithviraj Kapoor released and thus laid the foundation of the Punjab film industry that we see today. After this, in the 70s and 80s, many Punjab origin actors showed keen interest and participated in several films of this evolving industry. Rajesh Khanna, Dharmendra, Asha Parekh, Sunil Dutt, Dara Singh, Feroz Khan, Ranjeet, Raj Babbar, Om Puri, Amrish Puri, and many such big names acted and set the bar high for regional talkies. 

But there came a time when the Punjabi film industry became deeply commercialized and lost its charm. These films lacked in portraying the rich culture and heritage including, literature and art of Punjab, and primarily focused on typical love stories. It was at that point that people introduced the concept of parallel cinema in this region with the hope to introduce the audience to the history and culture of this ancient land.