Celebrating 10 years of Dharti: Navaniat Singh's super-hit Punjabi movie titled ‘Dharti’ has completed 10 years of its release today.

On this day in 2011, renowned Punjabi movie titled 'Dharti' had released in cinema halls across the globe. Director Navaniat Singh, who had delivered critically and commercially acclaimed movies such as 'Tera Mera Ki Rishta' (2009) and 'Mel Karade Rabba' (2010), continued his spree with Dharti.

While it was Jimmy Sheirgill's sixth Punjabi movie, it had marked the debut of Surveen Chawla in the Punjabi film industry. Rahul Dev and Rannvijay Singh, both of whom were known faces, had also entered the Punjabi film industry via noteworthy roles in Dharti. Other than these names, Dharti also starred the likes of Prem Chopra, Shavinder Mahal, Binnu Dhillon, Randeep Arya, Japji Khaira and late Jaspal Bhatti.

Written by Manoj Jha, Dharti was a quintessential political thriller - the first of its kind in the Punjabi film industry. The fast-paced narrative of the movie had further contributed to the intrigue factor making it a memorable movie for fans even after 10 years of its release.

It is worth mentioning that Dharti had also marked Sheirgill's debut as a producer (Jimmy Shergill Productions). Apart from Sheirgill himself, the movie was also produced by Darshan Singh Grewal and JS Kataria.

[caption id="attachment_114552" align="aligncenter" width="528"]  Jimmy Sheirgill and Surveen Chawla had portrayed the characters of Jaideep Singh Wadala and Bani Sandhu respectively.[/caption]

 

One of the major reasons behind Dharti's popularity also lies in its music with songs such as 'Warrant' (sung by Diljit Dosanjh), 'Gaddi Moudan Ge' (sung by Mika Singh), 'Dharti' (sung by Jaggi Singh) and 'Sarkaaran' (sung by Gippy Grewal) being liked by one and all a decade ago.

Celebrating 10 years of Dharti

On the occasion of Dharti completing 10 years, we interviewed Rahul Dev and Navaniat Singh who recollected memories with respect to shooting the movie. To begin with, Singh quashed rumours that Dharti was originally meant to be a Hindi-language movie.

"There was never any plan of making Dharti in Hindi. After Mel Karade Rabba, we were thinking of making a political drama - something which thrills the audiences. The mounting of the movie was grand from the word go," Singh told Punjabi Mania.

Dev, who had acted in excess of 50 movies across languages for more than 10 years before joining the Punjabi industry, shared that the movie was offered to him by Sheirgill and that he predominantly agreed to do it because of the actor-producer's "sensibility".

"Jimmy is a friend of mine. He had offered me this movie. Jimmy has a good sensibility. If you see his Hindi movies over the years, they are among the better ones. Then Navaniat narrated the whole thing to me. At first, I felt whosoever will play Nachattar Singh, he will have to act very realistically. For the time, it was a very novel subject. It sounded right to me and I felt like they're making a good sensible movie. That's how it happened," Dev told Punjabi Mania.

As mentioned above, one of the highlights of the movie was its casting. Being specifically asked about the three debutants in the movie, Singh disclosed the reason behind casting the likes of Surveen Chawla (Bani Sandhu), Rahul Dev (Nachattar Singh Virk) and Rannvijay Singh (Heera Singh).

"If you look at Rahul's character, he was a villain but I needed someone who could underplay it. Nachattar Singh's character demanded an actor who plays a villain but doesn't look like one. I didn't want Nachattar Singh to be loud as it would've given away a lot in a thriller. And I strongly believe that Rahul is one of the finest actors when it comes to playing characters subtly and his presence added a lot of freshness to the movie.

[caption id="attachment_114553" align="aligncenter" width="671"]  Shavinder Mahal, Prem Chopra and Rahul Dev in a pivotal scene from 'Dharti'.[/caption]

 

"For the character of Heera Singh, we wanted an archetype actor who catered to the youth as a student leader. And no one better than Rannvijay in those days. He had an aura [because of MTV Roadies] and a crazy fan-following and could also speak Punjabi fluently. Honestly speaking, I always wanted to work with Surveen and am glad that we went on to work together in other movies as well," Singh said.

Labeling Nachattar Singh's character as "realistic", Dev also expressed apprehensions around loud acting saying that it looks "unnatural". The actor further admitted that Nachattar Singh's subtlety is what really attracted him towards the movie.

"See, I've never liked loud acting. In the general run of things, we all talk in a normal tone. Don't we? We only speak loudly if one is very angry or if there some fight. Talking about Nachattar Singh, he was a very playful and subtle character despite his intentions. Honestly speaking, this is what attracted me towards this movie.

"I fail to understand as to why villains in Hindi movies have to be loud and always yelling. Take the example of two people who are fighting on the street. In the heat of the moment, they will hit each other or someone's shirt might get torn. But this never happens that one person will tear his shirt and show his body. Then the other person will do the same and then they will start fighting. It never happens. It is unnatural," Dev mentioned.

For a Punjabi movie of a varying genre in 2011, Singh admitted that there was a fear with respect to audiences' acceptance for the Punjabi audiences generally take time to accept new genres. Having said that, he also laid emphasis on creating one's own cinema than continually following a set pattern.

"There's always this fear. But whether to want to stick to the same thing or make movies of varying genres is an individual decision. Isn't it? If you look at my filmography, most of my movies don't belong to the routine genre of Punjabi cinema. I have always tried to work outside of the comfort zone [of genres] in the Punjabi cinema. Never followed a set formula. See, there's risk in every genre. So, one might as well work according to one's preferences and then leave it to the audiences," Singh added.

Being asked about a change which he would want to make if given a chance to remake Dharti in 2021, Singh put his weight behind working on an even more grounded script which begins the narrative from village-level politics.

"Given the current political atmosphere of our country, it is a right time to make a political film especially in Punjabi. If given a chance to remake the movie with any one change, I would like to keep it more rooted this time. Something around grassroot politics which commences from the Panchayat level and goes up to the Chief Minister," Singh concluded.

Most memorable moment

Navaniat Singh - The most memorable moment for me was shooting the climax. Dharti always reminds me of the winter season in Punjab and the day we shot the climax was perhaps the coldest. We had to shoot a sequence with Jimmy sir and [Shavinder] Mahal sahab on a hockey turf. There was so much dew that night that Jimmy sir's socks were getting wet despite the shoes. Eventually, we had to keep a cutter piece under his feet to complete the scene. We faced the same problem even while shooting the song Gaddi Moudan Ge. Frightful winter!

[caption id="attachment_114554" align="aligncenter" width="509"]  Shavinder Mahal and Jimmy Sheirgill during the climax sequence.[/caption]

 

I must also add that I consider myself lucky as a director to shoot at Ambala airbase. All thanks to the Indian Air Force. We not only got the permission to shoot inside the Air Force Station but were also allowed to shoot with a MiG-29. It was an absolute privilege. I will never forget those moments of shooting a MiG-29's take-off and landing. I am still friends with all those fighter pilots," Singh further added.

Rahul Dev - My most fond memory of shooting in Punjab is hospitality. Irrespective of what you're shooting and where [in Punjab] you're shooting and when you're shooting, it is unmatched. Recently [December 2019 - January 2020], I was shooting for 'Operation Parindey' in Punjab.

One Nihang bhai sahab used to tie my turban. Since it was the winter season, I requested him to arrange Sarson Da Saag. I had thought that he would arrange it from somewhere but you won't believe that he brought Saag and Makki di Roti for 45 people from his own home. My point is that every time you go to Punjab, there's this love. It is too much. If I go anywhere and tell the person that I've had my breakfast and want nothing to eat, he is like you can still eat a parantha or two. Whenever I shoot in Punjab for a long time, I gain weight [laughs].

Did you know?

1) Actors Prem Chopra and Shavinder Mahal were assigned separate vanity vans on the set. However, Chopra would often invite Mahal to his vanity van. Mahal, who was inquisitive to know about legendary actors from Punjab such as Dharamendra and Dara Singh, would often gather such insights from Chopra during their meetings as he had worked with them in the past.

[caption id="attachment_114550" align="aligncenter" width="554"]  Shavinder Mahal and Prem Chopra had portrayed the characters of Baldev Singh and Baljit Singh Wadala respectively.[/caption]

 

2) Award-winning action director Sham Kaushal had designed the action sequences of Dharti.

3) Writer-director Amarjit Singh Saron, who had directed Binnu Dhillon and Sargun Mehta-starer 'Kala Shah Kala' and 'Jhalle' in 2019, had worked as a first assistant director in Dharti.