62 THE CARAVAN
jatt like that · reportage
“I’m still being asked, ‘Don’t you
think you will get limited roles be-
cause of the turban?’ Well, I only want
to do limited roles then,” Dosanjh said
with a grin. “I don’t want to do too
many roles anyway.”
Dosanjh’s pride in the turban and
Sikh culture struck a chord with the
community. Several Punjabi film pro-
tagonists began appearing on screen
wearing turbans. An article in the
British daily The Guardian noted the
increase in turban-tying services in the
United Kingdom, and attributed the
trend to “younger members of the Sikh
community displaying increasing pride
in their roots and the rise of Bollywood
stars such as Diljit Dosanjh bringing
turbans into the spotlight.” A Facebook
group called “Paggan Pochvyian Wale,”
the title of Dosanjh’s hit song, has
about thirty thousand members, and
YouTube is flooded with videos with
titles along the lines of “How to tie the
turban like Diljit Dosanjh.” Dosanjh
has emerged as the first sardar to have
carved a space for himself in films on
the national stage, without having to
give up his Sikh identity.
Dosanjh’s rise has paralleled the
growth of the genre of Punjabi comedy.
The 2012 film Jatt and Juliet, starring
Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa, quickly be-
came the highest-grossing Punjabi film
upto that time, and did remarkably well
across India and in several countries
with high Punjabi diaspora popula-
tions. His most recent Punjabi film,
Shadaa, still in theatres, has already
made over R50 crore worldwide and has
broken several previous records.
The national and international
prominence of Punjabi pop music and
comedy—there is often an overlap,
as many Punjabi musicians are also
actors—entails several stories of the
triumph of Punjabi innovation and hu-
mour. However, its flip side has been
the recurrence of themes of caste pride
and the glorification of drugs, violenceand blatant misogyny across Punjabi
music and film. Dosanjh’s output has
been no exception. In a state that is
grappling with a serious drug menace,
senseless gun violence and rampant
crime against women, its film stars
and musicians are often questioned on
whether their art contributes to these
problems. Unfortunately, Dosanjh’s
answers to these questions have often
come up short.dosanjh was born in Dosanjh Kalan,
a village in the district of Jalandhar,
and completed his schooling in Ludhi-
ana. Initially named “Daljit,” he began
singing g urbani—Sikh hymns—which
require training in Hindustani-classi-
cal music and knowledge of the ragas,
at local gurdwaras.
In 2004, at the age of 20, Dosanjh
released his first album, Ishq Da Uda
Ada, produced by the Ludhiana-based
Finetone Casettes. He also changed his
first name to Diljit. As he explained inparveen negi / the india today group / getty images