Minar Malhotra who has earlier directed Lovely Te Lovely is back with his second Punjabi film, Dulla Bhatti. While his first film was a comedy he has chosen a serious subject for his second film. Punjabi Mania conversed with Minar over telephone about his upcoming film.
Minar, tell us about your film Dulla Bhatti?
Dulla Bhatti is a film inspired from the life of Abdulla Bhatti. He was the one who waged a war against Akbar. He is referred to as the Robin Hood of Punjab. The film is inspired from him and we have given it a little modern treatment. We have carried forward that character to the 90s era.
Binnu Dhillon is an ace Punjabi Comedian, how did you conceive him playing the serious role of Dulla Bhatti?
When we were working on the cast, we shortlisted 3 names for our lead character. Binnu Dhillon was one of them. We had researched on him, seen his theatre shows. I believe he has been offered comical roles only but he is much better actor than that.
In the film too, he plays the role of Dulla Bhatti very well.
Tell us about the music of your film?
We have big names like Nooran Sisters, Happy Raikoti and Ammy Virk lending their voices for our songs. Also there are boliyan in the film sung by various singers. The songs suit the situation and are not forced into.
The music of the film is given by Laadi Gill and Happy Raikoti has penned the lyrics. There are total 5 songs, out of which 2 are promotional
How hopeful are you about your film, provided it ain’t a comedy?
I started my career with a comedy film, as I felt they were good for a start otherwise I had this concept from a long time. But over the time I have realised that comedies too work only and only if there is a story. Punches and just Punches don’t make a hit film.
So here I am trying to present a new dish to Punjabi audience. Every child of Punjab must have heard of Sundar Mundariye, but a few of them would know about who Dulla Bhatti was. We are experimenting, we know it’s risk borne. But I believe audience will like this new character of Binnu Dhillon.
Do you think release of another Punjabi film on the same date will hurt your film’s business?
It’s unfortunate that our struggling cinema has to undergo competition. Yes, it might hurt our film. But if we take recent example of Ardaas and Love Punjab. Both films released on the same date and were well received by the audience. So I am hopeful about it.
