International Support Needed For New Chaar Sahibzaade Movie

PUNJAB, India—Takings for the Chaar Sahibzaade sequel, Chaar Sahibzaade: Rise of Banda Singh Bahadur, movie release has been severely affected by the Indian government’s ban of the 500 and 100 rupees notes.

The ban of the notes by Narendra Modi, the prime minister of India, has resulted in massive depletion of lower denomination notes, especially the 100 rupee notes. The unavailability of hard cash as had a huge knock-on effect and the new movie is feeling the effects of this shortage too.

The success of the first Chaar Sahibzade movie set box office records for India and further impressive takings internationally. These takings allowed for the production of the much awaited current sequel.

The currently movie did extremely well in it’s opening weekend as the movie grossed 12 crore rupees ($1.7m) worldwide. This is compared to a 6.7 crore rupees ($900k) for the original movie.

The sequel was produced at a budget of 20 crore rupees ($2.9m) so expectations of profits have been hit hard.

International ticket sales may help stem the issue

It is hoped that the ticket sales from North America and Europe will help someway towards the film makers recouping their investments in a way that might continue to encourage further big-screen productions.

So if we want to see similar efforts in the movie industry, the Sikh diaspora might need to encourage more visits to the cinema while the movie still plays.

 

16 COMMENTS

  1. I think if someone wants to make a film on history, there should be a board of sikh historians, he should take the advice from the board, so that there are no mistakes. It is better if our children can read books, we discuss about history with them & in Gurdwaras we bring historians also. When you watch the cartoon movies, when you talk about char Sahibjade, children will imagine only image of that cartoon picture. When you read something or tell about a person children imagine a living person not cartoon. I think it’s better if the film makers make films on Sikh principals & Sikh history without using the pictures of Guru Sahib, Sahibjade or our respectable Gursikhs icons.

    • I agree that there ne da to be a board to
      Approve these films because Sikhs are a very small minority’s and many filmmakers who are hindu and pro India always want to take Punjabi or Sikh stories and portray them through their own lens and they misrepresent historical facts and they indianize or hindutify Sikhs and punjabis and also there are elitists Hindu Brahmins living in the west like deepa Mehta who has power and makes films and she really
      Misrepresents the Punjabi and Sikh diaspora as well and when this woman was asked why she makes films about Punjabi diaspora she says because she’s Punjabi herself… these people only come out of closet as punjabis when it benefits them but when thousands and thousands of Sikhs are killed and punjabis being constantly destroyed by the evil Indian government then these elitists so called “Punjabi” Hindus don’t say a damn word but then they go an make movies about punjabis. They’re are opportunist and cowards and pathetic filmmakers

  2. I’m sure this film has made made more money out side of India, also their are many mistakes in the film, but you guy’s did try hard and at the beginning of the film you did say if their we’re errors on the film to forgive . To all my brother’s and sister’s don’t hate this people in the film gure gobind Singh ji char chabzhda were Marty doomed , but gure gobind ji, did not batter an eye lid , please learn something from the film , waheguru ji ka khalsa waheguru ji ka fateh,!!!!

    • Please learn something from the film??? My apologies but I do not need to watch cartoons about Sikh history to learn something, I know what baba Banda Singh bahadur did and also to the people who always says Sikhs made sacrifices for Hindus, Sikhism came into this world to better all of humanity and to fight against oppressor and for having a just society, Sikhs did not only save Hindus but anyone in Punjab who was suffering from oppression and most importantly of all we HAD TO SAVE OURSELVES from evil tyrants! And today who helps Sikhs in India? No one!

  3. Sikhs are the only religion in modern times who gave huge sacrifices for the cause of Hinduism. Instead of realising the contributions of Sikhs, genocide and hatred still prevails. In army too Sikhs contribution is supreme and above all.
    No other religion had such great heroic deeds, valour and supreme sacrifices in history of mankind across globe. Such movies must be shown to other religions to make them realise the facts

  4. These movies should not be produced. Most of the time facts are compromised to present any climax . An historian who reviewed this movie and found in excess of 100 mistakes . When wrong historical facts are presented as truth it does more harm than good. Please refuse to watch thes made for profit movies instead donate the money to any charity.

    • Such a shame they say international “support” needed,,, yes international pounds and dollars needed in your pockets…. to make cartoons about Hindu history

  5. The bottom line is that these filmmakers want to make $$$$$$ money money money which is fine because you can’t make movies for free but stop acting like you care more about the message then about the money, you care more about profits and you want our pounds and dollars because your rupees suck and Indians are really cheap and don’t pay to watch meaningful movies, they like watching retarded Bollywood movies which are usually crappy Indian versions of Hollywood films, creativity does not exist in Bollywood, reality does not exist in
    Bollywood and some of those actors are evil
    Like Amitabh Bachan he was best friends with Rajiv Gandhi who was the leader of Sikh genocide and he wanted Sikhs to die and to be scared in India and to leave India and he sent people to do surveys around India to see how many Sikhs shaved and cut their hair after indira was killed because he was a disgusting vile evil creature who loves to hear about how Sikhs were burnt and how they shaved their beards and the congress goons wanted to please their evil
    Leader, disgusting Rajiv Gandhi who deserved to burn in hell for his evil
    Deeds!!!

  6. WE KNOW WHAT THE SIKH GURUS AND HEROES DID WE DO NOT NEED TO WATCH CARTOONS ABOUT OUR HISTORY! Children can watch these films but do you think I’m some moron who doesn’t know the sacrifices our ancestors made?? You think I don’t know how brave and amazing they were?? I don’t need to watch cartoons to know My history!

  7. You just want our dollars you don’t care about Punjab or Sikhs!!!! If you cared so much about Sikhs why don’t others raise their voices when Siri Guru Granth Sahib is burnt all over Punjab???? Why don’t you raise your voices when people in Indian media still continue to propagate sant jarnail Singh bhindranwale as a terrorist?? Why?? Where these people when Sikhs want justice for the genocide? Where are these people when Sikhs say why did Indian government attack Siri darbar Sahib and send over 300 000 Indian army men to Punjab and imposed a curfew and killed so
    Many Sikhs and used tanks to blow up akal takht and Sikhs reference library and historical buildings in harmander sahib complex??? Where do you cowards hide when Sikh history from
    1984 and onwards is ignored by Indian state and non-Sikhs in the diaspora??? You Indians blow up our gurdwaras, you burnt thousands of Sikh men with tires around their necks, you killed so many Sikhs in fake police encounters, you raped Sikh women, you looted and burnt Sikh homes all across
    India, you name airports and universities after evil indira Gandhi and you kill our diamond leader sant jarnail Singh Khalsa bhindranwale then you make movies about Sikh gurus and say its diaspora fault that they should pay for it??? You say ohhh it’s so hard because of the rupee notes got changed??? People in India are CHEAP AND GREEDY okay, even if the notes didn’t get changed they still wouldn’t watch these movies so stop blaming the diaspora or begging us!!!

  8. Ok yes it’s great that these movies have been made but at the end of the day this is a business and these movie directors obviously want to make a profit about a story that is not their own story… they are trying to make a profit out of religious stories and which is fine I totally understand it cost money to make films and people have to make a living but for the love of god stop making Sikhs in the diaspora feel like
    It is their responsibility to fund these movies, we are involved in many charities and a movie is not a charity and Sikhs in India never received any justice and the government of India has killed so many Sikhs and ruined Punjab and our homeland and it’s not easy for Sikhs in the diaspora to go watch films in the theatres about a story they already know so go promote this film to all the non Sikhs in India who are always prejudice against Sikhs and disgustingly portraying them in Bollywood films, Sikhs in the diaspora know who gurus gobind Singh a sons were and we are well aware of their sacrifices, these films makers want to glorify and romanticize Sikh history but where are they about present day issues? They remain silent, they are cowards and then they make the Sikh diaspora feel like they don’t support them when in fact it is not our responsibility to be funding every film when we already face enough issues! My
    Main issue is stop making it seem like we have to put the success of this film on our shoulders!

    • I think you do not quite appreciate what is it at stake here. A film which has positive imagery and message about Sikh is important not just for Indians to view (to counter the Santo Banto and ‘hardliner’ stereotype peddled by the media and politicians) but also for the NRI disaspora and with English subtitles those not of ethnic Indian descent. Cartoons just like the artworks of Sobha Singh have a role to play in helping people come towards Sikhi especially children who might not otherwise be exposed to knowledge about Sikh theology and history – imagery in the 21st century world of media is extremely important as it acts like a shop window to bring in the curious passerby who can then peruse inside the books that will give them detailed information. Sikh NRIs have an extremely important role to play in the success of these kind of endeavours purely because they have a much higher disposal income and the money they earn proportionately puts the ticket sales of their Indian SIkh counterparts into the shade. Mainstream bollywood studios are not going to finance films about SIkh history atleast not ones which portray Sikhs in heroic light. I can only think of Bhaag Milka Bhaag in recent years which might be the exception. Indeed when films are made in India portraying real Sikh historical events there is an incredible amount of pressure to have them tone down the truth, alter it completely or have the film banned which then hits the filmmaker and stops them from making more – Sadda Haq, Delhi 1984 etc) and in these instances the ticket sales abroad are a lifeline. You really need to think about solidarity with your Sikh brethren here in India as we are not as free as you to express our dissent as we run the very real risk of being arrested and harassed. You would also be given succour to the likes of RSS Harinder who wants to create a divide between one SIkh and another particularly the NRI SIkh who is in a better financial and democratic position to dissent and raise awareness of injustice against the SiIkh kaum. Is it really such a hard thing for NRI Sikhs to buy tickets to and support filmmaking about SIkhs when you consider the distributor and actual cinema take up to 85% of the ticket leaving barely 15% to the filmmaker who will be taxed.? Better still buy the original DVDs of this film (not pirate copies) so more money is returned to the filmmaker and send those DVDs to those in India that you think should view this film – schools etc. It does not help the Sikh kaum to just hurl insults at India and Indians as a whole even though our anguish is well justified because the vast majority of Indians are at the mercy of the Indian polity as much as we are and feel as impotent to bring about change because they are assailed with propaganda about jingoistic nationalism but are at heart as human as we and can be made to see the difference between right and wrong as that God given insight is in all human beings. We as Sikhs should not leave India and Indians to the mercy of people like RSS Harinder and his ilk as Sikhs always fight for the rights of all human beings who are being oppressed. Sikhs have sacrificed far too much over the centuries to allow Hinduvta prejudice to throw this land back into the kalyug stone age.

      • I’m not saying that films about Sikh history should not be made, my main point was that I want these filmmakers to stop pretending that they care more about bettering society by people learning about sikhi then they do about making profits! That’s all, and also it is not the diaspora responsibility to fund everything, M. Singh I have no idea where you live but I live amongst the Sikh communities in Vancouver, California and England and they work very hard for their dollars and give back to build gurdwaras, to charities, to food banks, to charities like Khalsa aid and Sikhs for justice etc, so I was trying to say stop portraying the diaspora as people who do not do enough for sikhi because they all didn’t go and watch an animated film in theatres about stories they already know… also I’ve seen this movie and I personally thought it was awkward seeing guru gobind Singh as a cartoon but nonetheless it can be educational for some people but what I am was mainly criticizing the article that is trying to put the success of this film on the weight of the shoulders of Sikhs in the diaspora! I’m not dividing anyone, I’m not trying to cause any harm to anyone, I am simply criticizing the notion that these filmmakers care more about sikhi then making money and putting
        Dollars in their own pockets. I like expressing the truth and not just blindly jump on bandwagons. I appreciate your opinions. Have a great day

      • I understand what you are saying and you may be right to criticise these filmmakers if you feel they are preying on the sentiment of Sikhs abroad and even being somewhat insulting in saying that this film will fail unless NRI Sikhs come out and financially support with the guilt trip (of its financial failure stopping any further productions). If they are doing that then Waheguru will judge them. I am only saying that He is in the best position to know what is really in the hearts of these filmmakers – whether it is greed or seva. But if these filmakers are prepared to acknowledge and ask for forgiveness if they have erred in what they are presenting I think we might give them the benefit of the doubt. I too am uncomfortable with any of the Gurus being presented in visual form as the prohibition is there to prevent worshipping of the Gurus. There is a difference between animated and still life pictures such as those painted by Sobha Singh and others and although I would not tolerate live action portrayals such as those presented in Nanak Shah Fakir (as that would set a dangerous precedent and open the floodgates sure to be used by the likes of the RSS and other groups with real antipathy towards Sikhs) I think we need to think about how we can reach out to not just our next generation but those others who are oblivious (thanks to propaganda against the kaum) to who the Sikhs were / are and what they stand for. This does not mean we give carte blanche to anyone – Sikh or not – to just produce animated films about SIkh history and all such efforts must be carefully monitored and criticised to ensure that outrageous historical inaccuracies are not allowed to perjure our history and faith. Unfortunately this monitoring role should have been carried out by the SGPC but they have been completely infiltrated and are now operating as a fifth column within the kaum and cannot be trusted. NRI Sikhs are best placed to do this role, this seva of ensuring that animated films about our history do not cross the line as quite frankly it was the worldwide negative reaction of NRI Sikhs which caused the filmmakers of Nanak Shah Fakir to withdraw their blasphemous film from overseas cinemas where they stood to make the most money and profit. That reaction meant that others thinking of also making blasphemous or negative films about Sikhs had to weigh up whether it was financially worth their while. The same applies to this animated film, if it does more good than harm, then we need to ensure – with constructive criticisms to improve the next production – that the filmmakers have the financial resources to make another film. Anyway I appreciate greatly your opinion and trust you will continue to be as robust – you have all my respect.

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