India-Canada tension: Shubh's cancellation can impact Punjabi film industry

“As an artist it has become impossible to stay focussed on your craft and do what you love,” AP Dhillon, who was not too long ago, the subject of a tepid Prime Video documentary, said in an Instagram post. The singer’s comments, offered unasked, underline the growing sense of unease in the Punjabi entertainment fraternity. Things are increasingly becoming difficult in an age where entertainment by virtue of streaming and social media, is a global asset. No other industry perhaps echoes this sentiment as acutely, as the Punjabi entertainment industry. With India-Canada relationships abruptly veering towards an all-time low, it might not be panic stations yet, but the larger picture for an industry that quite simply feeds on both sides of the pond looks murky. Within days after both India and Canada expelled diplomats as reactive measures to Justin Trudeau’s accusations of India, Bookmyshow took the reactive step of cancelling singer Shubh’s India tour. It was a rare intervention prompted by the singer’s social media post that showed India’s map in a distorted condition. Since then the artist has expressed regret and reaffirmed his allegiances. On the one hand you can sympathise people of his ilk being crushed by the diplomatic tsunami at their doorstep. On the other you can with some amount of candour say that it comes with the territory. A lot of Punjabi music, especially the edgy, political kind, pushes acceptable boundaries of political commentary, and can therefore expect equally curt audits. But while this was a one-off case of a concert/tour being cancelled, the mounting concerns are rather structural in nature. Much of Punjabi film and entertainment industry branches out of a two-column stem. One focussed on the India business, usually based out of Chandigarh, or emerging centres like Zirakpur, Kharar etc. Mohali has become the hub of its musical resurgence but the film industry is comparatively still scattered. But music here stands for a lot. In no other industry maybe is the musical star as or maybe bigger than the movie star. In fact, Punjabi cinema’s biggest actors Diljit Dosanjh and Gippy Grewal, are musicians first. The other arm of these businesses focus on the overseas market that though fractional, is significant enough to warrant focus. Canada offers not just revenue but also avenue. Well-established production houses like White Hill and Rhythm Boyz, for example, were born on Canadian soil and have gradually settled to shape Punjabi cinema’s output over the last decade. To add to that, most popular Punjabi artists are global residents with Canada as a convenient base. Besides Dhillon, actress Neeru Bajwa is a Canadian resident alongside many like Dosanjh, Jassie Gill and others who seamlessly traipse in and out of the country if it were a second home. Not for no reason does a regional film industry produce an extraordinary number of stories around its fixation with immigration. Only this year, Carry On Jatta 3 broke an industry record of becoming the first Punjabi film to touch 100 cr at the worldwide box-office. Of this figure, a significant chunk was earned in the Canadian diaspora market. With political relations nearly collapsing, though consumption might sustain out of habit, it’s production and distribution that becomes trickier. For years the Punjabi industry has sustained as a native but global animal with a truly international outlook. Chaupal, the region’s first dedicated streaming service has in fact gone global, with the bullish hope that there is a Punjabi audience, or at least an audience for Punjabi stories, spread around the world. This month it acquired the industry’s biggest ever hit (Carry on Jatta 3) in a bold move to offer itself as the go-to place for Punjabi stories. To the entertainment industry’s bullish overtures and somewhat admirable conviction, if there was ever a caveat, it would be the ghosts of the movement that killed the industry the last time it showed life – Khalistaan. It might be a mere buzzword these days, but its impact on an industry that seamlessly drifts across oceans, merges stories from rural backyards to urban landscapes of a country it once called a friend might get trickier with time. Even Punjab’s gang wars - the assassination of Sidhu MooseWala for instance – are an eerie cross-border project. It’s probably too soon to say that the cancellation of musical tour, is an early symptom of pain for artists down the line. As much as the Punjabi entertainment and music industry is regional, it is also global. With that comes scrutiny and socio-political evaluation that has cut, bigger icons to size. It would be ideal for artists, in a sheepish but ultimately safe sense, to save themselves the rigour of jostling for public equity. Not all diplomatic tussles can accommodate edgy brands. Not the least in a uniquely incubated environment that quite literally needs to befriend both sides of a warring argument, in order to survive and grow. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News,  Trending News,  Cricket News,  Bollywood News, India News and  Entertainment News here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.