Punjabi lyricist-turned-singer-turned-producer-turned-actor Tarsem Jassar was recently on a tour to Australia to promote his upcoming film Rabb Da Radio 2.
Mr Jassar has in less than two years, covered a huge distance in the world of Punjabi showbiz.
Speaking with SBS Punjabi, Mr Jassar shares the story of his journey and also talks about Rabb Da Radio 2. It is a sequel to his critically-acclaimed yet commercially successful debut movie, Rabb Da Radio which hit cinema screens in 2017.
Rabb Da Radio 2 will be released on March 29.
Mr Jassar, now an established actor, entered the world of showbiz through his pen and mic.
His debut performance was a song, both penned and sung by him. Titled Attwadi, meaning ‘terrorist’, this song had mixed reactions from the audiences.
The song has a video featuring Mr Jassar who plays Bhagat Singh, the great revolutionary of the Indian Freedom Movement, fondly called Shaheed-e-Azam Bhagat Singh.
However, the debate that took place around the song (which can be seen on song’s YouTube page) raises a question mark over visually depicting the hardships braved by Bhagat Singh at hands of the British who ruled India for 200 years, and employing lyrics that have a slant towards justifying the rise of a separatist movement in Punjab during the 1980s.
Some people have even commented on the YouTube page that Mr Jassar seems to obliquely support the separatist movement without mentioning the name of its leader.
When SBS Punjabi asked him how he reassess ‘Attwadi’ today when his image in the world of Punjabi entertainment is that of a soft-natured, suave, brooding lover and whose characters exhibit a lot of grace and patience towards the beloved, Mr Jassar says he has no regrets about ‘Attwadi’ and sings this song even today when people demand. “The government of India has still not accorded the status of ‘Shaheed’ to Bhagat Singh,” says Mr Jassar.
Mr Jassar’s movie Uda Aida, he says, is a strong message to the Punjabi community across the world to keep their mother tongue language alive. “Surprisingly, Punjabi is vanishing from homes in Punjab’s cities, but Punjabis living overseas have retained it as their mother tongue. Uda Aida addresses that issue,” he says.
He also co-owns Vehli Janta Films and Vehli Janta Records, which produces Punjabi films and music. The genesis of the name, ‘Vehli Janta,’ says Mr Jassar, stems from the derision and provocation hurled at them from the elders in their villages when he and his friends, now business partners, were seen “idling away” in pursuit of their art. “we thought, if people call us Vehli Janta, then what stops us from calling our business of promoting Punjabi art but the same name,” says Mr Jassar wittily.
Click on the player at the top of this page to listen to this interview in Punjabi.
Related Stories
'I’m not serving Punjabi language': Binnu Dhillon
