Mumbai: Actor Anjum Batra, who portrays the role of dholak player Kesar Singh Tikki in Imtiaz Ali directorial ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ shared how the filmmaker appointed renowned dholak player K. C. Vaishnav, to make him learn to play the instrument.
Imtiaz has brought forth the story of the legendary Punjabi singer, late Amar Singh Chamkila with his biopic of the same name. The film stars Diljit Dosanjh in the titular role.
The film is about a musician and A. R. Rahman headed the composing.
To get the nuances and authenticity right, Imtiaz hired a professional dholak tutor for Anjum.
Remembering the exciting experience, Anjum said: “Since I play a dholak player in the film, I knew it had to look believable on screen. So, I expressed my desire to learn to play dholak to Imtiaz sir for my character Kesar.”
“He appointed the dholak player K. C. Vaishnav from Chandigarh who used to teach me how to hold a dholak and eventually play it convincingly,” he shared.
The ‘Maamla Legal Hai’ fame actor added: “I religiously learnt playing dholak for four to five hours daily for more than three months, till the pre-production work was done. I had observed Kesar Singh closely, including the way he used to sit and play dholak and tried to imbibe his style in my character. I even grew my hair, gained 11 kgs and learnt to play dholak for it.”
The film ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ also stars Parineeti Chopra. It is streaming on Netflix.
–IANS