As Satinder Sartaaj and Neeru Bajwa get ready to team up onscreen with the film Kali Jotta, they share how the project needed a lot of love, care and space

Sheetal

Pollywood is set to offer a fresh onscreen pair, Satinder Sartaaj and Neeru Bajwa, with the film Kali Jotta, which will hit the theatres on February 3. The film has been directed by National Award-winning director Vijay Kumar Arora. Ask the lead pair what made their collaboration happen and pat comes the reply from Neeru, who is also the co-producer, “It took a lot of years to ideate this one. But when this beautiful story came along, I knew no one other than Satinder Sartaaj could do it. I am so happy that he said yes.”

Sartaaj responds, “It was my dream to work with Neeru.” The Black Prince-fame actor has always been selective about his acting projects, making this his third film in a decade-long singing-acting career.

The trailer of the film Kali Jott brings forth the delicate subject of woman empowerment. And not just the actor, even the director was tight-lipped about it. Written by a woman, Harinder Kour and backed by Neeru Bajwa beside other producers, it’s a film where women take

centre stage. Grahan-fame actress Wamiqa Gabbi’s role in Kali Jotta is the thread that binds the different timelines and subject of the film.

SPEAK UP

I am so impressed with the subject of the film and my role. I feel this story is accurate and wonderfully depicts the hidden face of the community. I support women who endure societal injustice in silence. I wish to express my belief that women must speak up for their rights. —Wamiqa Gabbi, actress

Game on

Kali Jotta, a unique name, is derived from a game that every 90s’ kid from Punjab must have played. While Neeru was not introduced to it during childhood, Sartaaj remembers this game of marbles. Highlighting the meaning, Sartaaj explains, “In the context of the game ‘Kali’ and ‘Jotta’ stood for ‘odd’ and ‘even’, but here, as far as I have understood the theme of the film, it’s ‘alone and together’, and that’s the emotion we are talking about.”

On waiting for so long to release Kali Jotta, and whether the wait was worth it, Neeru is confident about it working at the box-office. She adds, “We wanted to wait for this film. The whole release schedule changed due to Covid. And we didn’t want to release amongst a lot of films because we knew that Kali Jotta needed a lot of love, care and space. It gave us extra time to plan more as well. We were lucky that we got a date with two clear weeks. And nothing beats the joy of bringing our chemistry for the viewers in the month of love, February.”