Even more than two weeks after its release on Netflix, Imtiaz Ali’s Amar Singh Chamkila continues to be a topic of conversation across social media. The film has not only met with a positive response from the critics and the audience but has also received a thumbs up from Chamkila’s kin. The screening of the film in Mumbai was attended by his family including his and Amarjot’s son Jaiman and the late musician’s first wife Gurmail.
Now in an exclusive chat with News18 Showsha, Imtiaz reveals that he was instrumental in uniting both sides of the family post the screening. “Amarjot and Gurmail’s families were there and were trying to take pictures with me separately. But I told them ki ek picture saath mein lo. Jaiman calls Gurmail mummy ji. Things happen in life but if they all can stick together, it’s always good,” he tells us.
Talking about how Gurmail reacted after watching the film about her late husband and his second wife, he says, “After she saw the film with her daughter, son-in-law and grandchildren, she told me that she loved it. She hugged me and cried. We all got emotional. Her feedback at that point was really positive.”
Interestingly, Imtiaz believes ‘there was a scope of developing Chamkila and Gurmail’s story’ in the film. “There’s so much that happened in Chamkila’s life that’s so interesting and also contributes to the scope of the story. There’s so much more that happened between them. So, I had a really tough time condensing everything and still not lose the entertaining and relevant themes,” he remarks.
He reveals that not many know that Gurmail got pregnant again after Amarjot gave birth to Jaiman and the filmmaker had even penned a screenplay to portray it onscreen. “He had another child with Gurmail after having a child with Amarjot. The circumstance of that has been explained to me by Chamkila’s sister. I’ve it on record and I had written a scene about it also but had to cut it down because it was somehow a bit less relevant than the ones that were already there,” he states.
The Rockstar and Jab We Met maker further adds, “I couldn’t show too much of her in the film because that part of Chamkila’s life was hidden from Amarjot and the whole world. It’s only later in the film that we revealed that he has another wife. I paper-edited the film a lot in order to bring it to the duration that it has today. But I agree that there’s a lot that could have been discovered in their relationship.”
Imtiaz goes on to spill the beans on an aspect of Chamkila and Gurmail’s marriage that couldn’t make it to the final cut of the Diljit Dosanjh starrer. “There are a lot of interesting stuff that happened in their lives. Chamkila was six years younger than Gurmail. When they got married, he got a bicycle. After the wedding, they cycled back home with Chamkila being the pillion rider for most part of the journey. They took turns but he mostly sat in the backseat because he was less than 16 years old,” says an amused Imtiaz.
Comments
0 comment