68 THE CARAVAN
jatt like that · reportage
were squeezed for funds at each point.” Gunbir
and Manmord took on the role of producers and
the responsibility of arranging funds to finish the
film. Jatt and Juliet was put together on roughly
four crore rupees, and around half the cost was
borne by the cousins.In June last year, I met Gunbir, a postgraduate
in electrical engineering, in the hall of the JW
Marriott hotel in Chandigarh, the site of a press
meet to publicise Carry On Jatta 2, produced by
White Hill. Though the hall was swarming with
people, and cast members were being interviewed
in each corner of the room, Gunbir told me that
this was a part of the process they struggle with.
“We don’t have a general-entertainment channel
in Punjab,” he said. “That presents a huge prob-
lem for the producers. You have to spend your
own money on gatherings like this. There are
only a handful of news channels, and a couple of
newspapers that cover film. That is why we have
to choose our films carefully and plan our pro-
duction schedules smartly.”
Manmord studied fimmaking at the Vancouver
Film School. Jatt and Juliet running out of money
is perhaps the greatest thing to have happened
to the two. Today, White Hill Productions is the
biggest studio in the region, and is referred to
as the “Yash Raj Studio of the Punjabi film in-
dustry.” They have an office in Chandigarh, and
another in Vancouver. “After Jatt and Juliet we
knew there was potential in the industry, so we
decided to open our own studio,” Gunbir told me.
The film, along with Gippy Grewal’s comedy
Carry On Jatta, which had released a month ear-
lier, made Punjabi comedy visible across India.
Both films were made on similar budgets and
both more than quadrupled their initial budgets
in collections. While Carry On Jatta brought
back the trend of out-and-out comedies, Jatt and
Juliet’s makers claimed they had invented Punja-
bi romantic comedy.
White Hill released Jatt and Juliet 2 within a
year of the first film—a sequel, but with a com-
pletely new storyline. Dosanjh went on to become
part of other franchises, such as Sardaarji and
Sardaarji 2, and starred in comedy hits such as the
2014 film Disco Singh.
The boom also helped the careers of several co-
medians, such as Gurpreet Ghuggi, Binnu Dhillon
and the almost forgotten BN Sharma, who onceshared the spotlight with the comedy legend Jas-
pal Bhatti in the television programme Flop Show.
“Punjabis especially love to laugh and at times
laugh at themselves,” Anurag told me. “I think that
is what sets it apart from Hindi comedies, and also
what makes Punjabi comedies better.” By better,
Singh also meant more successful.
Since then, a number of studios in Punjab,
such as Amrinder Gill’s Rhythm Boyz or the
Jalandhar-based Kapil Batra Studios, have tried
to replicate White Hill’s success, but have failed.
Gunbir said that this is because Manmord and he
do not just provide funds, they know each part of
the process of filmmaking. “We are completely
hands-on,” he said. “We will get into the script,
we will get into the film. Most producers or stu-
dios here think that all they need to do is throw
money at a big face. Even a Diljit Dosanjh or a
Gippy Grewal needs a good story, a good charac-
ter for them to play and you need to understand
what you are making. We are involved in the
filmmaking, the production and distribution, the
complete process.”
White Hill has produced 12 films in the years
since Jatt and Juliet, most of which have been
successful. White Hill’s strength, according to
Gunbir, is planning. Each of the studio’s big com-
edies in the past seven years has been released
in either May or June. “People want to step out
in the summer, because they are tired of sitting
under the fan or in front of the AC,” Gunbir said.
“And they want to especially step out at night.
They want to laugh, have a good time, and for-
get the heat. Summers are also a time where
we know that even the late shows will see good
bookings, because people want to have that free-
dom of going back home late.”
Unlike with the Hollywood summer block-
buster, the logic here is based on necessity. “It is
a cycle: shoot in the winter and premiere it in the
summers,” Gunbir told me. “Shooting in the win-
ter saves me several lakhs of rupees because then I
don’t have to worry about air conditioning and all
those issues.” Gunbir said that this is what he and
Manmord have brought to the industry—struc-
ture, management and professionalism.
There are creative ways of cutting costs, Gunbir
said. A scene at the airport, for example, could
be shifted to a bus stop. A car chase is not needed
when a chase on foot can make the same point.
Films are tightly strategised for month-long
shoots, and are wrapped as soon as possible.
A good understanding of the diaspora also
allows the studio to exploit both local and inter-
national markets. “Punjabis living outside want
the quintessentially Punjabi experience,” Gunbir
said. “They probably miss the community or the
places where they grew up, or the people that“Shooting in the winter saves me several
lakhs of rupees because then I don’t have to
worry about air conditioning and all those
issues.”