Imtiaz Ali enlists professional dholak tutor for Anjum Batra in ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’

Mumbai, April 16 (IANS) Actor Anjum Batra shared his experience of learning to play the dholak for his role as Kesar Singh Tikki in Imtiaz Ali’s ‘Amar Singh Chamkila.’ The filmmaker appointed renowned dholak player K. C. Vaishnav to train him for the biopic of the legendary Punjabi singer.

Imtiaz Ali’s film tells the story of late Amar Singh Chamkila, with Diljit Dosanjh playing the lead role. A. R. Rahman is in charge of the music for the project. In order to capture the nuances and authenticity of the character, Anjum received training from a professional dholak tutor.

Anjum expressed his desire to learn the instrument to make his portrayal of Kesar Singh Tikki believable on screen. He shared, “I religiously learnt playing dholak for four to five hours daily for more than three months, till the pre-production work was done. I had observed Kesar Singh closely, including the way he used to sit and play dholak and tried to imbibe his style in my character. I even grew my hair, gained 11 kgs and learnt to play dholak for it.”

The actor recalled his time with the dholak player, saying, “He appointed the dholak player K. C. Vaishnav from Chandigarh who used to teach me how to hold a dholak and eventually play it convincingly.” ‘Amar Singh Chamkila’ also stars Parineeti Chopra and is currently streaming on Netflix.