Once I first met Diljit Dosanjh in 2017, he was a quickly rising star in India. His Hindi movie debut, Udta Punjab, was all the craze, solely a 12 months after his Sardaar Ji turned one of many top-grossing Punjabi movies of all time. His single “Do You Know,” a gradual jam-esque love music, was an unlimited hit. He served as decide of a actuality TV singing present and had an worldwide tour within the works. “I’ve barely begun,” he instructed me then. “That is nothing.”
Now, seven years later, the 40-year-old powerhouse is the primary musical artist from India to carry out on The Tonight Present, coming into American properties like few artists from the nation have earlier than.
Dosanjh breaks new floor in cinema and music on the common, and at a breakneck tempo — he’s collaborated with Sia, Saweetie, and extra. Virtually a 12 months after his Coachella debut, he bought out Vancouver’s BC Place this April — with a 54,000-strong crowd. Dosanjh’s ongoing Dil-Luminati tour is packing venues all throughout the US.
Dosanjh additionally stands out past leisure. In the event you’re accustomed to India’s present political local weather, you’ll admire the boldness of his vehement assist for the farmer protests. In an enviornment that has grow to be more and more hostile towards outspoken critics, he’s boosted calls from farmers to repeal legal guidelines threatening their livelihoods.
Who is that this man, who in a single efficiency had The Tonight Present viewers completely rapt and Jimmy Fallon backstage talking Punjabi? And the way, from among the many scores of proficient Indian artists, did he attain this degree of success?
A boy from rural Punjab makes it huge
India is a rustic of movie and music dynasties, however Dosanjh hails from a small village with out household connections to the leisure scene.
At solely 11 years outdated, Dosanjh was despatched from his village of Dosanjh Kalan to the Punjab metropolis of Ludhiana. There he began his music profession singing Sikh non secular hymns known as kirtansat native Gurdwaras, the Sikh place of worship. Though he left his village, his village by no means left him. Born Daljit Singh, Diljit adopted Dosanjh as a surname later in life, an indication of satisfaction and a reminder of the place his roots lie.
Due to early collaborators who noticed the spark of younger expertise, Dosanjh moved on to embrace Punjabi pop. Diljit remembers taking pictures his first music video titled “Ishq Da Uda Ada,” which roughly interprets to “The ABCs of Love,” at age 17. The video confirmed Dosanjh studying to talk “pop star” as he appeared on-screen for the very first time. It’s exhausting to acknowledge that baby-faced man within the low-budget, early-2000s music video. In my newest interview with him, which passed off the day after his Fallon efficiency, Dosanjh stated that child doesn’t exist anymore.
Eight years after that first album, Dosanjh starred in his debut movie, The Lion of Punjab. In India, seen success in music usually acts as a pure pipeline into film roles the place, with luck and expertise, artists can discover a wider viewers and higher fame.
For these unfamiliar with the expansive cinematic panorama of India, you’ve possible heard of “Bollywood” — however that moniker applies solely to Hindi-language cinema. In actuality, there are as many movie industries in India as there are languages. The Punjabi unbiased movie trade is sort of 90 years outdated. Calling all Indian films “Bollywood” is as blasphemous as saying “naan bread” (naan means bread) or utilizing the phrases “chai tea latte” collectively in a sentence (chai means tea).
Nevertheless, Hindi cinema does command an enormous viewers, if not the most important, in India. In 2016, after 13 years as a profitable musician, and 5 as a significant Punjabi film star, Dosanjh lastly stepped into the Bollywood enviornment. In his first Hindi movie, the star-studded Udta Punjab produced by a few of the greatest names in Hindi cinema, Dosanjh performed a police officer slowly coming to grasp the extent of rampant drug use within the state.
Udta Punjab’s director Abhishek Chaubey wished to forged somebody contemporary and sudden. “Diljit’s title got here up in dialog and I jumped at it,” he instructed me. “He was highly regarded in Punjab and the Indian diaspora overseas and was up and coming into the mainstream consciousness of India as effectively.”
Dosanjh heard the movie was going into manufacturing and thought to himself, “It is a movie about Punjab. I must be starring in it.” A couple of days later, the decision got here, asking him to affix. Issues like this occur to him quite a bit, he says. He appears to be a grasp of manifestation.
Since Udta Punjab, Dosanjh’s recognition has grown in unpredictable and exhilarating methods. Chart-topping albums one after one other, umpteen singles, numerous main roles in Punjabi and Hindi movies, sold-out concert events in venues around the globe, and a rising social media presence that features a very energetic YouTube channel.
Amidst all of this, Dosanjh has by no means misplaced connection together with his music. His most iconic work is full of life and soulful, pushed by Punjab’s conventional Bhangra beat, born from the hole of a spherical drum often called a “dhol.” His efforts to take Punjabi pop worldwide shine by way of all the things from his lyrics to his clothes. “The Punjabi apparel is extra necessary to me than the songs I choose for a efficiency,” Diljit careworn to me.
Final 12 months, Dosanjh turned the first Punjabi artist to carry out at Coachella. Followers again residence couldn’t cease making Instagram reels about this achievement. The spectacle made one factor clear: If there’s a stage on the planet price conquering, Dosanjh is working his means towards it.
How he makes use of his voice in a divided India
Not like most celebrities in India, Dosanjh has been prepared to touch upon political points. In in the present day’s India, talking out like that is thought-about a direct and vocal problem to the ruling authorities of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Occasion (BJP). One solely wants to take a look at replies on X to see the extent of harassment that form of criticism can engender.
In 2020 and 2021, regardless of India’s strictly enforced Covid-19 lockdown, the nation witnessed the largest-ever protests organized by farmers, most of whom hailed from Haryana and Punjab, with many coming from a Sikh background like Dosanjh.
Amongst their calls for, the farmers had been asking for the revocation of latest Farm Legal guidelines handed by the Parliament of India. These legal guidelines in essence stand to show their government-regulated market into an open market, topic to all of the competitors that suggests, however are additionally an instance of the federal government’s willingness to go sweeping insurance policies that have an effect on folks’s lives. Protests passed off everywhere in the nation. The motion unfold quickly. Rihanna tweeted about it.
Few superstar voices from inside India had something to say. However not Dosanjh. He amplified the demonstrations by way of social media, visited the farmers, and reportedly went so far as to assist them monetarily. This gained him followers and adversaries in equal measure. Most severely, he was labeled an anti-national separatist by Kangana Ranaut, a distinguished actor-turned-politician.
The welfare and illustration of the Sikh neighborhood has all the time been necessary to Dosanjh. In an interview, whereas speaking about his 2022 Netflix launch Jogi, Dosanjh insisted the journalist seek advice from the notorious Sikh Bloodbath of 1984 as genocide. Not riots, genocide. Well mannered, however stern.
Whereas Dosanjh is prepared to get political in his feedback, a lot of his music takes a much less weighty tack. “Can’t sing political songs. They’ll ship me to jail!” joked Dosanjh after I requested him why that was. On high of Punjabi hip-hop and Bhangra mash-ups, he is identified for simple rhymes with catchy hooks. In “Magic,” he sings a few lady with “eyes like Coca-Cola,” and in “Lover,” he insists, “I’m your lover, child. I can’t get better now that I’ve taken one take a look at you.”
A lot of his newer music depicts a high-flying way of life, another reflective of the American hip-hop scene than his rural Indian roots. He’s acquired songs with titles like “Caviar,” “Lamborghini,” “Excessive Finish,” “GOAT,” and “Born to Shine,” the latter two of which he carried out on The Tonight Present.
Dosanjh even has a music devoted to Rihanna titled “Ri Ri,” the place he imagines the pop star decked out in a conventional Patiala swimsuit worn by Punjabi ladies. He sings about eager to attend a live performance of hers, wearing conventional Punjabi garments himself.
It’s price digging slightly deeper, although, to older songs in his repertoire, the place you is likely to be shocked to discover a pious undertone. His 2013 album, merely titled “Sikh,” has eight tracks, every devoted to spirituality and valor. He has additionally launched different softer, extra clearly devotional songs.
“Diljit is a really, very mild-mannered particular person if you work together with him one-on-one,” Chaubey says. The sentiment is echoed by Imtiaz Ali, the newest Hindi filmmaker to have labored with Dosanjh, for the movie Amar Singh Chamkila. The function of Chamkila match Dosanjh completely: a Punjabi musician identified for his catchy tunes, raucous lyrics, anti-establishment bent, and deep affection from his followers. Dosanjh “stays primary and easy in his method,” Imtiaz observes. However don’t let the simplicity idiot you, these nonetheless waters run means deep.
Bridging cultures by way of music — and a humorousness
Regardless of movie and music industries that generate billions of streams on any given day, Indian tradition has little foothold in America. In the event you’re not but shopping for my argument, think about this. My in-laws — suburban, center class, white New Jerseyites — might have heard of Shah Rukh Khan however couldn’t title one in every of his movies. They know Priyanka Chopra as a Jonas. No matter its seemingly monumental success within the West, none of them have both heard of RRR or have one clue what a “Naatu Naatu” is. (If it is advisable click on away from this text to Google now, please simply go on, come again shortly, and don’t admit it to anybody).
Whereas the US is a brand new frontier that Dosanjh has set his sights on, followers in India needn’t fear. At each new venue, “Punjabi aa gaye” (“Punjabis have arrived”) is Dosanjh’s rallying cry. Dosanjh now serves as an envoy of Punjabi, and Indian, tradition.
His chorus is heard, too, throughout his social media. A number of the hottest posts on his web page are mini-vlogs he shoots in his free time. One viral video options Dosanjh engaged in pleasant banter with Alexa, asking her to play his music, with the gadget repeatedly failing to grasp his Punjabi accent.
Ever so playfully, the singer exposes how a sure form of assimilative angle is required of brown folks once we go to America. By talking naturally to no avail after which adopting probably the most comical, stereotypical American accent to get the job carried out, he flips the “outsider” narrative on its head. The digital assistant tech, very similar to America, doesn’t know what it’s lacking.
I can confidently predict that Dosanjh — and a slew of different expertise from India — will convey you an countless stream of vibrant, bass-heavy, dance-friendly, and uncompromisingly accented music and flicks in years to come back. Possibly you’ve already purchased your ticket. But when not, as Dosanjh instructed me final week: “My reply stays the identical. That is nothing. I’ve barely begun.”
