Diljit Dosanjh recently appeared in an interview, where the conversation turned to where he started and how far back that actually was.
Diljit did not soften the description of his childhood. He called his family below average. That was the word he used.
“Because I came from a poor family. It was like a below-average family. If you got sick, you wouldn’t have money to go to the doctor, so don’t get sick because you don’t have money,” he said.
This is the context in which he started building a career in music.
The debut album and what came after
Diljit released his debut album in 2002. After it came out, people began approaching his management company with offers to book him for birthday party performances.
He was not interested initially. Performing at birthday parties was not what he had in mind when he started out. But he was under contract and the offers were being made through his company. He accepted them.
Then something shifted. He was paid for those performances. That payment changed how he looked at the situation.
He realised quickly that album sales alone were not going to give him financial stability. Live performances were where the actual money was. Once that clicked, his approach changed entirely.
He said yes to everything
From that point, Diljit took every gig that came his way. Birthdays, weddings, any event where someone would pay him to perform. He did not turn work down based on scale or prestige.
“I didn’t say no to anybody. If someone offered Rs 5,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 15,000, I said yes. I didn’t say no to anybody. I went everywhere day and night,” he said.
He was direct about why. He wanted to get out of the financial situation he had grown up in. Getting rich and famous, as he described it, was not about ego. It was about not going back to a place where being sick meant staying sick because there was no money for a doctor.
Why he eventually stopped doing weddings
Diljit did stop performing at weddings eventually. The reason was not that he outgrew them financially, at least not entirely. It was something else.
Senior artists in the Punjabi music industry began making comments. The implication was that wedding performances were all he was good for. That he belonged on that circuit and not beyond it.
He did not argue with them or respond publicly. And, he made a decision instead. He stopped doing weddings and started focusing on organising his own concerts. That is how he moved from performing at other people’s events to headlining his own.
Where he is now
‘Main Vaapas Aaunga’ released on June 12. The film was directed by Imtiaz Ali and also starred Naseeruddin Shah, Vedang Raina, and Sharvari. It is currently still in theatres.
Diljit Dosanjh stars in it. He is now one of the biggest names in the Punjabi music industry and has built a parallel film career.