Amrinder Gill’s Chal Mera Putt 2 opened today (27th August) to a great response in East Punjab circuit and other areas with large Punjabi-speaking population. The film had actually released on 13th March before the first Coronavirus pandemic lockdown had been announced. The producers were forced to discontinue it from the cinemas as they (cinemas) were ordered to be shut down along with all other establishments. The producers also cancelled their contract for digital release as the initial response and public reports of the film were excellent. Had they not cancelled their contract by returning the advance money received, the film would’ve been streamed digitally as it had been released theatrically, technically speaking.
After 17 months, the film has been revived in cinemas this week. Besides Amrinder Gill and Simi Chahal from Punjabi cinema, it boasts of Pakistani artistes — Zafri Khan, Iftikhar Thakur, Nasir Chinyoti, Rubi Anam and Akram Udas — in its cast, which is another major plus point of the film. In the Overseas circuit, especially, the Pakistani actors will prove to be a good factor to attract the audiences to the cinemas, besides the hero, the film’s content, and the huge success of the first part, Chal Mera Putt. Since Pakistani actors were not allowed in Indian films, the producers went to the UK to shoot with them.
Actually, the producers went all out to announce that the film starred Pakistani actors, but they were playing with fire in doing so because the producers’ associations in India had imposed a ban on working with Pakistani artistes in Indian films after the terrorist attack on Indian CRPF jawans in Pulwama in Jammu & Kashmir in February 2019. Luckily for the producers of Chal Mera Putt 2, their publicising the fact that they have five Pakistani actors in the film has not raised the shackles of those who wait for an opportunity to condemn films and actions of the film people.
Incidentally, the trade expects Chal Mera Putt 2 to net Rs. 60-70 lakh today, going by the collections of the film in morning and afternoon shows held so far. If that happens, it would be a phenomenal start to the film, much more than the initial of Puaada which was the first Punjabi film to open in cinemas after the lockdown, on 12th August. By the way, while Puaada opened in 50 cinemas of East Punjab on 12th August, Chal Mera Putt 2 has opened today in 130 cinemas because a lot of cinemas have reopened since the release of Puaada.