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Punjabi director Navtej Singh Sandhu aims for another win at Cannes

This year the Cannes Film Festival, starting 9 May, will be screening two Punjabi short films – Chamm and Gawachi Pagg directed…

Punjabi director Navtej Singh Sandhu aims for another win at Cannes

A Still from Punjabi Short Film 'Gawachi Pagg', Directed by Navtej Singh Sandhu (Photo : Youtube)

This year the Cannes Film Festival, starting 9 May, will be screening two Punjabi short films – Chamm and Gawachi Pagg directed by Navtej Singh Sandhu.

The film Chamm is on the story of a Dalit’s struggle but the main attention taker is Gawachi Pagg that is an emotional tale picked from an incident during Operation Blue Star in Amritsar and is said to be the real star of the show.

The film Gawachi Pagg is said to be Navtej Singh Sandhu’s third entry into the Cannes Film Festival and shows a young boy that desperately searches for his turban in the Golden Temple before a curfew is announced. The young boy is being played by Japtej Singh who also played the character of young Milkha in Bhaag Milkha Bhaag.

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The film shows the fearlessness of Japtej finding his turban, a symbol of honour among all Sikhs while convincing a cop to let him go back inside the temple.

“My first film, Nooran, on women’s empowerment, was screened in 2014. In 2015, one of my films, Khamdi Deorri, based on family relationships gone astray, was selected in the short films category,” says Navtej, who has directed over five short films till now.

Navtej has reflected on the industry of short films while thanking those who stood by him. He shed some light on the challenges like lack of funds, returns and support that makes the business of short films not very lucrative and sought after. Even after this, he subtly thanked producer Dharam Singh Goraya who after knowing that short films pay almost nothing decided to invest in Navtej’s movie Gawachi Pagg.

He shared how he was in the business of the promotions of Punjabi films for around 24 years but also how apart from a few genuine Punjabi directors, who created quality content, other directors rarely made any sensible movies. Comedy was a favourite genre of all directors, but even that was being overused, says Navtej.

Chamm is the only other Punjabi film at Cannes in all these years apart from Sandhu’s three films. “I don’t know if people don’t send their films or their films don’t get selected. But if we are to be seen internationally, we have to make good cinema that is worthy of festivals like Cannes,” Sandhu says about the tough selection criteria at Cannes.

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