Mumbai, April 3: Actor-director Gippy Grewal says he has often tried to push the boundaries of Punjabi cinema by attempting different kinds of genre and his upcoming film “Akaal” is yet another step towards that.
Grewal said the success of his 2011 film, “Jinhe Mera Dil Luteya” paved the way for an influx of comedy films such as “Carry on Jatta”, and “Jaat & Juilet” in the industry. The actor soon recognised the need to create diverse content and made “Ardaas”, a drama, which was followed by action film “Warning”
“The perception has been built that only comedy films are made in Punjabi cinema. People back then felt this was a safe genre, and about 15 to 16 comedy films were made back-to-back. When we made ‘Ardaas’ a lot of people said ‘This film will not do well’, but it did well.
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“Later, we made ‘Warning’. We also made ‘Saukan Saunkane’, which is a story of two women, and that film did well too. Later, different genres of films were released and did well commercially. So, a good film definitely works well commercially,” the actor told PTI in an interview.
Grewal has also written and directed “Akaal” besides acting in it.
The film follows the story of Sardar Akaal Singh and his village as they face a vengeful assault by Jangi Jahan and his forces after the death of Maharaja Ranjeet Singh. Known for films like “Carry On Jatta”, “Singh vs Kaur”, “Jatt James Bond”, and “Manje Bistre”, the actor-director said stories of courage deserve cinematic exploration.
“I thought this is the right time to bring this story today because they motivate us… This film portrays the warriors and what the environment was like then. We believe people will like this film. The story is of Sikhs, but that doesn’t mean we have said anything wrong about other people or religions.”
With “Akaal”, Grewal said the biggest challenge was to nail the screenplay. He said he had originally drafted the screenplay differently but realised it needed correction to resonate with Punjabi audiences.
“It was initially VFX-heavy, so I had to strip it down and redo both the story and the screenplay,” the 42-year-old actor added.
The filmmaker, who has previously helmed “Ardaas”, “Ardaas Karaan”, and “Shava Ni Girdhari Lal”, expressed gratitude to Karan Johar for backing the period-drama, which is set for release on April 10.
“We didn’t make this film before because we didn’t have the budget, but today we’ve it and felt, ‘The time is right’. Punjabi cinema has grown, people recognise us and appreciate our work, so the reach of the film will be big. But with Dharma coming into picture, our film got bigger,” he said. (PTI)
