Subhash K Jha (DNA; March 30, 2016)

Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh is being wooed in right earnest by Bollywood. The actor-singer has completed Udta Punjab and has just said yes to an Anushka Sharma producton Phillauri. But, there is no yearning to be a Bollywood hero. “I am very happy doing Punjabi films. I have a wide platform to express myself,” he says.

‘I was sold’
About Phillauri, Diljit says, “When Anushka came to me with the film, I wasn’t sure I’d do it. But when I heard the film’s climax, I was completely sold. Anushka has a terrific role. But so do I. So brilliant is the story idea that I wonder why I didn’t produce it!”

He adds, “There was a time when turbaned heroes were considered unwelcome in movies. Now that has changed. Rather than the turban being a limitation for my acting career it is my USP.”

‘Singing is first love’
Diljit who began his career as a singer in 2009, also began acting in films since 2011 (The Lion of Punjab being his first). He divides his time between the two vocations. Singing, he maintains, remains his first love. “I am what I am because of music and singing. When I go on stage in front of thousands of fans, I become one with them and one of them. The audience too feels the same. It treats me like a part of their extended family. Even when I am busy with an acting assignment, I’ve to put out a single every two-three months. Otherwise, my fans feel betrayed and unhappy. I, too, feel miserable when I’m not singing.”

Actor by chance
Acting for Diljit is just an incidental vocation. “I became an actor by chance. The roles started coming in and I took them up for a lark. One film followed another. But believe me, to this day I don’t know camera angles, or lighting on the sets. Many times my co-stars remind me that I am blocking their light on the sets. Mujhe yeh sab ke baare mein kuch maloom nahin.”