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Punjabi
Cinema
By Pk Kapila
Punjabis
are the backbone of Indian & Pakistani Film Industry & Major
Television Content.
Who does not know the names of famous Indian and Pakistani Film
personalities in virtually all fields from Producing and making to acting
and distributing.
Hindi Films which are the most visible worldwide; are mainly produced and
made in Bombay (Mumbai) and Madras (Chennai). Punjabi films have been made
in Bombay and in Pakistan Lahore is the center. The following is a brief,
intro to the Punjabis in India and Pakistan movie business to give you a
quick idea and it does not purport to be any academic paper.
Punjabis related to Indian Cinema
Among Bombay's Top Film people Punjabis shine
like stars.
Major known Punjabi Producers & Directors like Ramanand Sagar, BR
Chopra, Yash Chopra, Gulzar, Late IS Johar, Late Prithvi Raj & Raj
Kapoor, Shashi & Shammi Kapoor Brothers and Sons, DevAnand,
ChetanAnand, Lekh Raj Tandon, Late K.A. Abbas and many more.
Famous Punjabi Actors are countless and virtually household names; from
Late KL Sehgal, Balraj Sahni, Prithvi Raj, Raj Kapoor, Madan Puri to still
going on and evergreen DevAnand, Dharmendra, Jeetender (Ravi
Kapoor),Rajender Kumar, Shashi Kapoor, Shammi Kapoor, Pran, Sunil Datt,
Rajesh Khanna, Om Puri, Amreesh Puri, to other top acting names like Raj
Babbar, Vinod Khanna, son Akshaya Khanna, Dharmendra's sons, many sons and
daughters of Kapoor Family, Shakti kapoor, Ranjit [the 'notorious' ex
villain famous as Ranjeet is really Gopal Bedi from Patiala, who is also
extremely talented director besides being a great artist], Kabir Bedi, and
many more Punjabi actors.
Famous Actor Dilip Kumar hails from Peshawar. 80s Superstar Amitabh
Bacchan's Mummy Mrs. Teji Bacchan is from a known Punjabi Family.
Among 90s actors there are many Punjabi faces including Juhi Chawla,
Raveena Tandon, Poonam Dhillon, dozens more.
Who does not know the names of some of India's topmost singers and legends
like Late Mohammed Rafi, Mahender Kapoor and lyrics writers like Sahir
Ludhianwi, Anand Bakshi and many music directors like Ravi and many more.
There are other tens of thousands of Punjabis who work in technical depts.
TV productions and other aspects of this industry.
India's principal and top selling Hindi Movies industry have been
dominated by Punjabis in such a way that without them the industry will be
absolutely colorless.
Punjabi language Cinema never could sell well, for lack of enough markets
and in 80s yearly, the average no of 8 Punjabi movies, per year were
produced as most didn't make any money.
Despite the small number of movies in Punjabi some of them are still worth
watching.
Most of the movies were set in rural background and usually the stories
were not very solid. Most Punjabi talented artists and producers preferred
to make movies in Hindustani - a blend of Hindi and Urdu - which were sold
rather easy and had enormous markets.
Punjabi Films like Nanak Naam Jahaz hai, Chann Pardesi were sold very
well.
It would be great if someone can post the popular Punjabi movies list from
India.
Comedian actor Mehar Mittal, known among Punjabis abroad and in Pakistan,
kept the flame of Punjabi Comedy up for long time.
There are a great number of Punjabi actors and actresses who have enormous
talent but for lack of good opportunity they had to look for work in Hindi
Films and from 80s onwards in Television drama serials and shows.
If India and Pakistani governments allow more interaction a great future
for Punjabi cinema can be forseen, as there is a great talent in Pakistan
however Lahore does not have the technical know-how of Bombay.
If there was more interaction and cultural freedom, top class Punjabi
films could be produced as absolutely great acting talent of Lahore and
first class film techniques of Bombay could be merged.
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