Showing posts with label Jasbir Jassi. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jasbir Jassi. Show all posts
I’m still called the Dil Le Gayi Kudi Gujarat Di girl-Deepika Motwani
8:20 AM
Jaspreet Nijher (CHANDIGARH TIMES; May 11, 2023)
A Femina Miss India 1999 finalist, Deepika Motwani, who hails from Ahmedabad, became famous when she modelled for Jasbir Jassi's, music video Dil Le Gayi Kudi Gujarat Di. “The video was part of my contract with the pageant,” says Deepika, set for a comeback to entertainment industry after returning from the US.
She adds, “I was in school and had to get my parents’ permission to sign the contract. The video makers wanted me to wear chaniya choli. But I argued that if you are showing a pool side then logically, put me in a swimsuit.”
To everyone’s surprise, Deepika ended up in a bikini. She laughs, “I think I was one of the first women to wear a bikini in a music video. Back then there was no body shaming, I had no qualms showing off my body. After the video, I realised I was popular! I’m still called the Dil Le Gayi Kudi Gujarat Di girl.”
After the video, she completed her studies, got married and went to the US. “My marriage didn’t work, and I returned to India. I have been doing theatre in Mumbai since. I was in touch with Jassi and others who asked me to make a comeback. This is a beautiful time for Indian entertainment, it is bubbling. ”
My first memory of voting is that it gave me respect-Pankaj Tripathi
8:18 AM
Niharika Lal (BOMBAY TIMES; October 5, 2022)
The Election Commission of India (ECI) has named National Award-winning actor Pankaj Tripathi as its National Icon. On Monday, during an event in Delhi, the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) Rajiv Kumar shared how Tripathi has been actively involved in voter awareness programmes. While complimenting the actor for his association with the poll panel in creating awareness among voters, CEC Kumar announced that Tripathi was chosen keeping in view his commitment to the cause and wide appeal across the country.
‘I CANCEL MY SHOOT IF IT FALLS ON A VOTING DAY’
Talking about his association with the awareness campaign, Tripathi said, “I am thankful to the ECI for selecting me as its National Icon, and I’m really humbled to be the first such icon from Bihar. CEC Rajiv Kumar asked me if I’d like to be a part of the initiative and I readily agreed. We are yet to complete all the formalities, but I’ll try my best to fulfil this responsibility and do the task I’ve been assigned.”
At the event, the Mirzapur actor shared, “I am also a common voter. I cancel my shoot if it falls on a voting day. The task of reaching out to the masses via radio or TV to inform them about their voting rights is something I do even in my personal capacity. Kisi ek vyakti ko pakad ke samjhane lagta hoon voting ke baare mein. A couple of days back, I met one of my colleagues who is a known actor and I’ll not name him, but during our conversation I realized that he is not that aware about the power of voting. I asked him, 'Why don’t you vote?'. I was really shocked to know that he doesn’t vote, because I come from Bihar, where everyone – irrespective of their level of education – is quite aware about their voting rights.”
‘ELECTIONS HAVE NOT ONLY GIVEN ME THE RIGHT TO VOTE BUT ALSO RESPECT’
Recalling the time when he cast his vote for the first time, Tripathi said that the process not only gave him the right of matdan (voting) but also samman (respect) as a voice that has a say in democracy.
Sharing an incident, he said, “When I was a kid, in our village any kind of motor vehicle was a rare sight, and we used to run after the vehicles when we’d spot them once in three-four months. But during elections, three-four candidates used to campaign in cars every day. While as kids we used to chase those election campaign vehicles for pamphlets and badges, as we grew up a little, we would feel humiliated to chase the cars for pamphlets. When we became eligible to vote, something changed. Ab iss baar jab chunav ka samay aaya aur ab wohi 6-7 dost soche ki ab iss baar gaadi ke peechhe daudna nahi hai. Aur is baar woh gaadi hamare saamne aa kar ruki aur karyakarta bole, ‘Namaste, aap log kya naye voter hain?' Un logon ne jhanda, badge, pamphlet diya. Chunav ne na keval matdan ka avsar (opportunity) diya, balki samman bhi diya.”
TRIPATHI HAS A MASS CONNECT: CEC
Commenting on Tripathi’s selection, CEC Rajiv Kumar said, “We are grateful to Pankaj Tripathi for several reasons. Hum sabke (ECI) saath jo unka judaav hai woh nishulk (devoid of monetary transaction) hai. He didn’t charge us anything. He speaks to people with such modesty not just in life but even on screen that everyone feels an immediate connection with him. Actor wala aura nahi dikhate hain. He has this bond with our voters. Pankaj Tripathi hamare voters ki shaql, surat, seerat aur samvad hain. We are very happy to be associated with him. Up until now, he was associated with the Election Commission of India as the State Icon of Bihar, because of his popularity, now we have made him our National Icon.”
‘PANKAJ TRIPATHI HAS DONE A LOT OF WORK TO GENERATE AWARENESS AMONG VOTERS’
The ECI officials mentioned that Tripathi has done a lot of work to generate awareness among voters. Sharing an incident, an official said, “Once we reached out to him for a voter education video, he was filming in a jungle where they had no network. so he got the message a day later. Then he shot the video with available equipment at the shoot location and uploaded the video two days later when he had internet connectivity. He didn’t need to go to that length to film that video, but he did. There have been several such occasions when he was busy, but he took out time to educate voters.”
The official added, “We will be using Tripathi’s services in a big way not just for the 2024 general elections but also for state Assembly elections. We will also request him to work with us for new voter registration campaigns as he is immensely popular among the youth.”
SELECTION CRITERIA FOR ECI’S NATIONAL ICON
An official said, “National Icon of the ECI is chosen after a lot of consideration as the person should not be affiliated with any political party.” Earlier, Aamir Khan, Mahendra Singh Dhoni and Jasbir Jassi were named National Icons of the ECI.
Sonakshi Sinha and Badshah to recreate Jasbir Jassi's 'Koka' for their upcoming film
8:49 AM
Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; June 3, 2019)
Debutant director Shilpi Dasgupta’s yet-untitled slice-of-life film features Sonakshi Sinha and rapper-singer Badshah who will be making his acting debut. Now, Mirror has learnt that the duo is all set to recreate Jasbir Jassi’s hit song from 2003, “Koka”, on screen. The film’s team is retaining Jasbir Jassi’s voice with some rap portions by Badshah in Tanishk Bagchi’s recreated version. The original video had featured Mugdha Godse.A source close to the development informed that the folksy number is being used as a celebratory track with Sonakshi and Badshah, along with Varun Sharma and other actors grooving to the catchy beat. “Choreographed and directed by Vijay Ganguly, it was recently shot at a resort in Panvel,” added the source.
Sonakshi confirmed the news, saying, “Yes, ‘Koka’ is a peppy, foot-tapping number, one of my favourites, and we had a great time shooting it.”
Her co-star added that it has been a pleasure to revisit Jasbir Jassi’s magic, a full-throated Punjabi celebration of Sonakshi’s character, her crazy family and circle of friends. “Tanishk has done a great job with urbanising the folk sound and it’s definitely going to be the new jam this wedding season,” he promised.
The film is produced by Bhushan, Kishan and Divya Khosla Kumar, Mahaveer Jain and Mrighdeep Singh Lamba. And Bhushan asserted that the recreated version fit in perfectly. “The backdrop is Punjab and the characters are happy-go-lucky people. They celebrate their happiness in full-on masti and in keeping with the flavor and characters, ‘Koka’ was the apt song to take forward,” he reasoned.
We’ve slowly stopped being slaves to music labels-Jasbir Jassi
7:45 AM
Jasbir Jassi is a man on a mission. He talks about not making compromises in his music
Bryan Durham (BOMBAY TIMES; February 7, 2014)
Jasbir Jassi has been making music for years now. The Punjabi pop singer has seen it all in the genre. Here, the Dil Le Gayi singer, tells us about his albums, he discusses the current state of Punjabi music and is bullish about not making compromises or going with the herd mentality when it comes to creating new music.
Tell us about your latest album Dhol...
I put it together, partly to create something in the Punjabi folk style. In the title song, the Punjabi dhol is quite prominent, hence the song. The other reason I created this music is for my friend Sarina Jain, the creator of the Masala Bhangra workout. I was making a few tracks for her and Dhol is one of them. She features in the music video as well. We’re not feeding the Italians pizza here, we’re feeding them makke di roti aur sarso ka saag. That’s kind of the theme.
It’s a five-track album!
I actually had about 20 songs ready for Sarina’s show.I had made up my mind to release the album on Lohri. But given my perfectionist streak, I’d like to give every song my best or not put it out at all. That was all we could get ready in that time. We spent a lot of time mixing and mastering the title song.We had been trying to get time with a prominent sound engineer to correct that, but it didn’t work out because of dates. Finally, we requested KJ Singh, a sound designer who works with AR Rahman to come on board. The thing is, he doesn’t do this type of song. He took his time mixing it. When it came to mastering, we couldn’t agree when he kept adjusting the bass guitar or drums. We clarified that we were looking for an intrinsically Punjabi flavour to a song we were trying to promote internationally and we wanted him to play up a specific dhol kick effect.That’s what took us time.
Wasn’t this album a big risk?
This was a big risk as nobody wants to pick up anything but Bollywood these days. We had no idea if something like this would work.In any case, music companies and radio stations weren’t playing our stuff.A prominent music label, who was to release my album, told me to do something like what Honey Singh was dishing out, or something ‘Bollywood’. I absolutely don’t want to go there. And if I do go Bollywood, I want to do so on my own terms. If this hadn’t worked, I’d have been in a soup. Now that it has, I can rest easy. When Laung Da Lashkara came out a few years ago and did quite well, that’s when I realised I was headed in the ‘Bollywood’ direction. My main mission is to promote the purity of Punjabi music and I didn’t want to veer from that. I was returning from Punjab when I realised that at every wedding or every event they were playing my song. I had no expectation it would do that well.A lot of channels and radio stations have now picked it up.
And you’re not cool with that.
These are dangerous times for music. See the state of music these days. People like Gulzar sahab have had to write rap for someone like Yo Yo Honey Singh. Isse bura time toh music ka ho hi nahi sakta hai. Bahut bade khatre ki baat hai.
So there are certain things you won’t do to make a song or album work?
A song’s/album’s success doesn’t affect me. If it does well, fine. I don’t get disappointed and instead, start working on the next track. I was afraid how it would release. I don’t do rap, I don’t do bad words. Take for example Boss’ Party All Night. It had such dirty words. A prominent music company told me to give them something like that — that would work nationally and with the youth. I told them meri graceful music karne ki umar hai, woh wali umar nahi ke main aapko kuch chichorapan kar ke de doon.
The young aren’t into ‘graceful’ melodies. What does that say about us as an audience?
We are trying. The young don’t understand what they ought to listen. One thing that’s good about bad music that you eventually begin appreciating and promoting good music. A lot of poeple are working towards rectifying this. We’ve slowly stopped being slaves to music labels. I’ve released my album on my own. Ab apni marzi se music karenge!
Your take on the current state of Punjabi music.
The sensible and established artistes have been quite for the last four years. You go to a menu and obviously order only what’s on the menu. A lot of people weren’t ready with the music and now they are. In a year and a half, we’ll have globally popular authentic Punjabi music.
You’ve performed live internationally. What are the most requested songs?
I remember, at Cannes, the people there may not understand the language but enjoyed anything by Baba Bulley Shah or Amir Khusro saab. Sufi music is more favoured internationally.
You don’t do too many collaborations.
You’re right. I don't do too many. I did one with Ehsaan that was very well-received (Subhan Allah). For my album, Jassi-Back With A Bang for Times Music, I collaborated with a very big Grammy-winning music producer named Jeff Bhasker. I personally feel Punjabi is the one language that blends easily with everything from R&B to hip-hop, house and jazz. Now that you mentioned it, I must work on a collaboration, soon!
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