Imtiaz Ali: ‘I Feel Interested in the Lives of People Who Don’t Toe the Line’

Bollywood filmmaker Imtiaz Ali spoke about the research and casting calls that he took while making his latest film, Amar Singh Chamkila, a biopic based on the late Punjabi singer-composer and his life partner Amarjot Kaur.

The movie, starring Diljit Dosanjh and Parineeti Chopra in the lead roles, was out on Netflix last week and Ali also got to work with composer A.R. Rahman once again for the soundtrack. By his own admission, Ali knew that he wasn’t the first person to bring Chamkila’s turbulent rise to the top and tragic death to screen. In an interview conducted as part of IMDB’s On the Scene series, Ali said when he approached Dosanjh to play the lead role, the filmmaker found out that the singer-actor had already made a film loosely inspired by Chamkila’s life events. Ali adds, “However, I had specific knowledge because I had conducted thorough research. I listened to stories and met people who knew Chamkila and Amarjot 36 years ago when they were alive. I met [Kesar] Tikki, who played the dholak and was Chamkila’s close friend. He was a mercurial character who greatly influenced Chamkila.”

Ali says he met Tikki several times and conducted interviews to get as many details down about the life and times of the musician. “He [Tikki] became emotional and shared things with me that he later regretted or corrected. This was because I met him on multiple occasions. He even mentioned that he had cursed Chamkila to die,” the filmmaker says.

To that end, Ali says he made Amar Singh Chamkila based on accounts offered and research that involved meeting people Chamkila had encountered, plus visiting places that the famed Punjabi voice had lived, including “the office space in Ludhiana where all the artists and singers congregated.” The director says, “As my interest grew, I met more people in Punjab. It’s interesting because Chamkila had a knack for entertaining the masses, and understanding what works with the masses is a quality all artists and filmmakers would love to possess.”

When asked how he convinced Diljit to play Chamkila, Ali said, “When I spoke to him, I assumed that since he is a musician, he would have heard about Chamkila from his childhood, especially being from the same area as Chamkila. So he knew everything about Chamkila.”

Amar Singh Chamkila also sees Parineeti Chopra take on a singing role for the songs performed in the movie, as part of her role as Amarjot Kaur. When asked about the challenges Parineeti Chopra faced in recreating Amarjot’s music, Ali said, “Chamkila’s compositions are always very high pitched, so for a woman to match that was extremely difficult […] In real life, Amarjot had a problem singing on such high notes. Parineeti Chopra faced a similar challenge in the film, where she had to sing very high all the time, which is quite difficult. She’s primarily an actor, not a professional singer, so she practiced rigorously. We also enlisted the help of a singing diction teacher named Kittu from Ludhiana, Chamkila’s hometown, who trained both Parineeti and Diljit. We knew they would be singing live, so we ensured they were well-prepared.”

Ali has previously made music-themed films such as Rockstar in 2011. When asked what draws him towards actors who are artists, the director said, “There have been artists in my films. I don’t know whether I do it because I am a writer and director. But I also feel interested in the lives of those people who don’t toe the line, so to speak, and they do something unexpected that makes their lives more dramatic for cinema.”

Watch the full interview with Imtiaz Ali below.