In a country, where talent was used to come after looks and style, some artists have changed the track of such perspectives. They are popular among people not because of their “Greek God” appearances, but because of the hard work and efforts, they put into their passion. Punjabi artist Minar Malhotra is one such artist, who believes in paving his way towards success, but only with his passion and endurance.

Punjabi filmmaker Minar Malhotra started his career as a 3D animation tutor in Delhi. But, destiny had some different plans for him in the store that Minar had to leave his job and start everything from scratch, not once, but multiple times.

“I took a loan for my sister’s wedding, but was unable to repay it to the bank. I went broke and life took an upside turn. At that time, everything in life seemed blank and all I cared about was to do anything to take that burden off my shoulders…So, I took decisions being completely unaware of the outcomes,” recalls Minar, the writer and director of critically acclaimed Punjabi film Dulla Bhatti, which starred Binnu Dhillon.

After witnessing major setbacks in life, Minar was offered a film editing project by a filmmaker from Ghana. In Ghana, not only he did handle the editing part of the film but also became its director. And, now he believes that his visit to Ghana was a turning point in life. He decided that once getting back to India, all he would do is filmmaking.

“Just after I landed in India from Ghana, I started meeting people from the Punjabi film industry. But, no one offered him money at the beginning. ‘Par meine soch liya tha ki bhookha mar jaunga, dobara job nahi karunga, karze utar gaye they, roti gurudware mein kha loonga, par kaam toh yahi karunga…’ That was my commitment with myself and I was absolutely sure about it. You can say that had I found my true calling,” says Minar.

However, things were never easy. From making his presence felt as a director to getting his solo projects, everything tested patience.