Writer-director Balwinder Singh Janjua wants to tell stories of the soil

Mona

Balwinder Singh Janjua has complete faith in Punjabis and their indomitable spirit. Partition, insurgency, drugs, and lately farmers’ protest – Punjab has faced challenges over the years, yet has shown the resilience to bounce back, each time. 

To mount a story of this soil on a canvas that befits the grandeur of this state has been a dream which Balwinder Singh Janjua is about to realise with his upcoming show – Cat. 

With Puaada, Saand Ki Aankh, Firangi, Mubarakan and Chak Jawana to his credit as writer, Balwinder wore the director’s hat with the upcoming film Unfair & Lovely, a social comedy, which he has also written. Cat, another of his ambitious projects, is close to his heart. Interestingly, both have Randeep Hooda in the lead role.

To start from the beginning, a child with the Defence background, he grew up watching films of Raj Kapoor, Guru Dutt, Vijay Anand, Dev Anand and Raj Khosla.  A passionate storyteller, after completing his masters in economics, he did a filmmaking course in Delhi. 

Mumbai was his step next where he worked as an assistant director for projects like Apne, Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyo and Shaheed. Balwinder wrote and produced many films in Punjabi and Hindi. Direction came as a natural progression.

“I want to tell stories of my state but in a way that has an international appeal,” he opens up. Cat, the web show, touches topics like insurgency in 80s and drug menace around 2005. “Punjab has faced much adversity, even in Partition the state bore the maximum loss,” says Balwinder. But he trusts the Punjabi jazba to tide over bad times and start all over again. 

As the first look of the show presents Randeep Hooda in the turbaned avatar, we wonder if he plays a spy or a cop! “He is neither,” chuckles Balwinder, “And, that’s all I am at the liberty to say.” 

The series was shot in Amritsar from the start to finish, and has actors from the region. “When we are telling the story of the soil, we want to keep it authentic. Not just the place, even actors are from here.” Even the language and dialogues are in sync with the region the characters belong to.

Randeep Hooda, whose body transformation for Sarbjit was commendable, is a director’s delight. Says Balwinder, “He is so dedicated to his craft that throughout the shooting of Cat, he spoke only in Punjabi. Even when someone talked to him in Hindi or English, he replied in Punjabi only. Can you imagine that level of dedication?” 

Though this jatt from village Kathiali, Gurdaspur, lived across the length and breadth of the country as his father was posted in the Air Force, his heart beats for Punjab. “Every vacation was spent here in Punjab. My mother now lives there and I have kept my connection intact.” In Mumbai, he has found his Punjabi circle. 

Balwinder has collaborated with Luv Ranjan for a couple of projects. As for Cat, it will stream on Netflix around August or September. “We have found a great partnership in the OTT giant which not only gave us the creative liberty but also a big budget to tell the story at a scale that we wanted to. That the platform gives our show an opening in 190 countries is just amazing!”