Movie filmed in B.C. that represents the Punjabi community also a box-office hit

The movie is called Honsla Rakh — a romantic comedy starring Punjabi superstar Diljit Dosanjh as the male lead, playing a single father raising his son while attempting to find love again.

Dosanjh acts alongside Sonam Bajwa and Shehnaaz Gill and the entire movie was shot in Vancouver.

“This is something different that we tried with this father-son concept and a very different ending,” actress Sonam Bajwa said of the film.

“We wanted to keep it fresh, keep it more relevant, so people could relate – especially this generation. So hopefully now we feel more confident to try different things in future now.”

The movie is produced by Diljit Dosanjh and Vancouver developer Daljit Thind, who owns the production company Thind Motion Films.

“This is a top-10 movie straight in North America for the last two weeks, which is proud for us, like a small Punjabi culture movie doing so well in non-Punjabi industry too,” said Thind.

The film has broken records, becoming the second-ever Indian language film to be in the North American box office top-10. It’s also on IMDB’s top-five highest-grossing Punjabi movies of all time, grossing over $6 million.

Bajwa adds that the film represents a huge growth for the Punjabi film industry and the community as a whole.

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“I am happy that the Punjabi industry is getting that recognition,” said Bajwa, adding “it is a really proud feeling for all of us as a team when we hear that it’s done so well in North America.”

The storyline is unique to the Punjabi community, with the team hoping to break barriers for future films.

“Punjabi industry has so much potential in terms of the talent or the scripts or the content and we can only bring something to the table if we have the people to watch that, so we look forward to doing more in the future,” said Bajwa.

The entire movie was shot during the pandemic, which Thind explains supported the economy at a pivotal time.

“For us as Canadians, we feel proud of it,” said Thind. “We contribute to the economy and during the pandemic we created jobs – almost 150 jobs.

“So this is good plus we promote our local culture lot of people in the movie can see local people, local artists.”

Honsla Rakh is currently playing at theatres across the province.