He Didn't Write Chamkila, Punjab Did: Imtiaz Ali's Stunning Confession
He didn't just write Chamkila, he said; in some strange way, Punjab itself had chosen him, channelling decades of buried stories through his pen. He also touched on comedy's cruel arithmetic: how a joke that lands the first time perfectly can fall flat by the fourth retelling, forcing artists to constantly shift their rhythm rather than chase a formula.
He Didn't Write Chamkila, Punjab Did: Imtiaz Ali's Stunning Confession | FP photo
Indore (Madhya Pradesh): Imtiaz Ali, the acclaimed Hindi film director and screenwriter behind Jab We Met, Rockstar, Highway, Tamasha and Amar Singh Chamkila, is known for stories woven around love, self-discovery and emotionally layered characters, often set against journeys and the search for meaning, walked into the city not as a celebrity passing through, but as a storyteller hungry for connection.
Promoting his newest film ‘Mai Wapis Aauga’, he found himself surrounded by an audience whose questions cut straight through the small talk, raw, sincere and unexpectedly moving.
He later admitted the sincerity left him momentarily speechless. Imtiaz Ali walked into the city not as a celebrity passing through, but as a storyteller hungry for connection.
One question which was most asked by the audience in the theatre lingered: why did the ending have to be so sad? Ali confessed he'd wrestled with this himself, even discussing it with his own daughter.
Reuniting someone with a 95-year-old's fading world felt too neat, too convenient a resolution.
Heartbreak, he decided, was the more honest choice, even when it hurt to write.The director's trip to Indore wasn't all interviews and reflection.
A visit to Daly College left him captivated by its grandeur, and he hinted that its corridors and grounds might soon become a filming location in a future project, proof that inspiration often arrives uninvited, in places you least expect.
Then came the deeper story: Chamkila. Ali traced his origins back to Punjab, where he spent time among families who had lived through Partition.
Their memories, fragmented, painful, astonishingly similar to scenes that would later appear on screen, shaped the film more than any script outline ever could.
He didn't just write Chamkila, he said; in some strange way, Punjab itself had chosen him, channelling decades of buried stories through his pen.
He also touched on comedy's cruel arithmetic: how a joke that lands the first time perfectly can fall flat by the fourth retelling, forcing artists to constantly shift their rhythm rather than chase a formula.
Through laughter, grief and quiet observation, Imtiaz Ali revealed an artist still listeningto cities, to historyand to the people whose stories find him before he ever finds them.
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