‘Daaka’ brings Gippy Grewal and Zareen Khan on screen

Daaka, directed by Baljit Singh Deo, unites Gippy Grewal and Zareen Khan after a hiatus of 5 years, following their 2014 outing Jatt James Bond. The film is slated to release on 1st November 2019. Daaka presents the story of a man named Shinda who decides to rob a bank in order to get married to the girl he loves. “From a long time I was trying to come up with a film on the lines of Jatt James Bond. A lot of stories came to my mind. Initially, the idea was to make a film around demonetization but the project couldn’t get materialized. Then later on Daaka’s plot came to my mind. Since the plot had the same feel of Jatt James Bond I decided to contact Zareen. The initial idea was to produce it under my banner Humble Motion Pictures. Then one day while taking to Bhushan Ji the topic of Daaka came up. Now, he had been telling me to do a Punjabi film with him for T Series for a very long time. When I gave him the one-liner he immediately decided to fund the project. He also gave me the free hand to make it the way I want,” reveals actor Gippy Grewal who has also written the film’s screenplay.

Zareen, who is known for her work in mainstream Hindi films like Veer, Ready, Housefull 2, Hate Story 3, Aksar 2, and 1921, among others, is delighted to back in Punjabi cinema and doing a film with Gippy again. “I think this time it is ever better than our last outing together. In Jatt James Bond, Gippy was just an actor and so his involvement was quite limited. But in Daaka he is also the producer and the writer. Also he has picked the director himself and so the entire team is his. So, of course, the interactions were more this time and the bonding was much better. The entire experience was perfect because apart from being a great actor and a very resourceful producer he is also a superb host,” explains Zarin. She plays a character called Laaly in the film. “In the film we did 5 years back we were playing the same characters, Shinda and Laaly. So we decided to repeat those characters in this film. The audiences had loved our pairing in Jatt James Bond and they really wanted to see us again in a film but it took longer than we had hoped for. I am so glad that it’s finally happened with Daaka,” adds Zareen.

Daaka promises to have all the makings of a family entertainer. “The film offers all kinds of flavours that you can expect from a film. It’s a complete film in that it has romance, action, thrill, emotions and drama. Usually in Punjabi cinema, you don’t get to see so many flavours in a single film and that’s what makes Daaka so unique. Above all, it is a story-oriented film. The dialogues are written by Naresh Kathooria who has great command over comedy and you will see that even in the most serious moments in the film there is an undercurrent of comedy. Also, I feel that the chemistry that Zareen and I share in the film is really good. In fact, those who liked us in Jatt James Bond would love us in this film as well,” says Gippy.

Working in Jatt James Bond proved to be a stepping stone for Zareen to be at home while playing Punjabi characters. “The thought that I have already done Jatt James Bond is very reassuring. I feel that Punjabi is a very easy language. It’s similar to Hindi and so I understand all of it. Also, I have a lot of friends who are Punjabi. So I keep hearing Punjabi all the time. Even the Hindi films keep showcasing the Punjabi culture and of course they really so much on Punjabi songs. That’s why as an actor understanding Punjabi is only natural. It’s only while speaking that I am not very fluent because it’s not my first language. So occasionally there are some grammatical errors but I am sure once I have done a couple of more films in Punjab I will be very fluent in the language too. However, during the filming Daaka I was spot on with my dialogues and accent because they used to write and give me the dialogues which I would memorize. So while delivering I didn’t have any problems,” recollects Zareen whose next Hindi film Hum Bhi Akele Tum Bhi Akele is scheduled to release in February 2020.