Winning spree
Manjeet Maan: We were hopeful of winning some award. Actually I was expecting Divya Dutta to win in the supporting role category, RA Krishna for his beautiful cinematography and more so, Manoj Punj for his impeccable direction. I did not think that I would get it for costume designing though. I am proud of the fact that Sai Productions’ effort to bring Punjabi films to the fore is working. This is our fourth production and we have won the prestigious national award for all our earlier films. Shaheed-e-Mohabbat Boota Singh got the award for Best Film in 1998. Our second film Zindagi Khubsoorat Hai bagged it for Best Playback Singer for Udit Narayan in 2002. He got it again in the Best Actor category in 2004 for Des Hoyaa Pardes . This year it is a proud moment for us. I have bagged it for the costumes, Gurdas for his rendition of Waris Shah’s couplets Heer and art director Raashid Rangrez for his realistic sets of the bygone era.

As the immortal Waris Shah
Gurdas: Little is known of Waris Shah. He was the one who wrote the epic drama Heer Ranjha in poetry form. He was solely responsible for refreshing people’s interest in the almost forgotten love story that had earlier been penned by many writers. But it was Waris Shah’s version of the tale that became so accepted and liked that it eclipsed the works of all the earlier writers. This version is popular as Heer Ranjha Shah.

Rendering Heer
Gurdas: Heer, for which I have bagged the award, is rendered in the couplet form throughout the film. It is like the doha or bainth as called in Punjabi and comes situationally in the background. During the reign of Mughal Emperor Akbar, music and all other forms of art were at the peak before Aurangzeb put an end to all art forms. But no one could stop fakir Waris Shah from preaching the message of the Lord to the people of the town. Aurangzeb felt Waris Shah’s lyrics were a hindrance to their prayers. Gradually people started supporting Waris Shah and the king had to allow him to continue his work.
We were actually planning some other project. All of a sudden one day I started rendering Waris Shah’s couplets. That is when we felt that it was the saint who was asking us to make this project and without a second thought we plunged into it.
Manjeet: What Waris Shah preached was actually what was to happen to Heer Ranjha in later years.
Gurdas: I am glad that I got recognition for the good work of someone as great as Waris Shah.

Building a township
Raashid: When I was told of this project, I was very tense, as it required meticulous planning starting from how the ambience of a mughal period film would work today. Manjeet was very sure that things would fall in place eventually.
Gurdas: We found an appropriate place, an agricultural land in the Roopnagar district, about 30 or 40 kms from Chandigarh towards Himachal Pradesh with mountains in the background. The film depicts the life and times of Waris Shah and required a township of the 18th century.
Manjeet: We had to start from the place where Waris Shah sat to write his poetry. There was a small pond and around it we created an entire water body running through the town.
Raashid: And to accomplish a film of this magnitude and grandeur, a huge set was designed and erected around and soon a small town came up around the 15 acres of land. It had to look realistic like its original place that is now in Pakistan. We got dead trees transported with the help of industrial cranes and to give them a real look, got them planted and painted though they were 60 feet high. There were mango and date trees. Many streets, houses, shops were made. There were sweetmeat shops where jalebis were prepared daily and in the evening the entire unit would finish them.
Manjeet: We travelled all over Punjab and Pakistan for the designs of doors and windows. We got some made and even paid heavy rent for certain things. Permission was acquired from legal authorities in New Delhi to have animals like camels, goats, cows, ducks, chicken, horses and pigeons in the film. We left no stone unturned for the project.
Gurdas: So much pain had been taken to make the set look real that people came visiting the site as tourists. Some would even remove their footwear before entering a part of the set of a mosque.

Costume drama
Raashid: It was not an easy task doing the costume as well. We had to be very meticulous since it was a period film.
Manjeet: We studied a lot about the clothes, texture and colours worn during that time. We had to work on the ghaghras and the sleeves. Jewellery was selected very carefully. Some were bought while some were rented. More than research, what worked to our benefit was our imagination.
Gurdas: We went to Patiala and checked out the khandaani jewellery and accordingly made some imitation ornaments.

Celebration time
Manjeet: We haven’t really celebrated our achievements. I wish our director Manoj Punj were here to enjoy our success. We released the film on September 27, 2006 after nine months of sheer hardwork and the young director died on October 22. I still feel his presence around me, prodding and guiding me all the time.
Gurdas: Manoj was instrumental in giving us such good films.

In the pipeline
Manjeet: We are proud of the fact that we made Waris Shah as 99 per cent of the youth in Punjab did not know about him till they saw the film. This makes us more responsible now and we have to do something even better this time. I have a script ready that I may direct myself soon.
Raashid: I am doing the sets for Dia for Tarun Dhanrajgir.
Gurdas: I am presently acting in Pimpi-Prince’s Mini Punjab. They are video directors from Punjab.

Remembrance
Gurdas: Recently I went to the place where we had shot the film and was glad to see that the barren land that it once was had corns growing in the fields. There was greenery all over and there were mangoes on some of the trees. The villagers told me that it had even rained there something that had not happened in a long time. There was even the presence of naag devta that is considered very auspicious. I distributed sweets to everyone, as this is the kripa of Waris Shah. It is also because of him that we have bagged so many awards.