It is perhaps Diljit Dosanjh’s chest-thumping Punjabiyat that arrested the audience and music aficionados at Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival last month. Exuding lingual pride and garnished with the traditional fashion vocabulary of the region’s hinterlands, videos of him in a kurta, chaadra (or tamba, Punjabi-style lungi) and turlay wali pagg (pleated-fan turban) at the iconic annual music festival, held in California’s Colorado Desert, went viral.
Chandigarh is his first stop in India after the performance, which courted both accolades (for becoming the first Indian to perform at one of the biggest music festivals of the world) and a row over the Indian flag. Streetwise, yet reticent and reserved, Diljit likes to corner himself from controversies. “I like to stay away from negativity.” he says.
The singer-actor’s general demeanour is punctuated by composure: he does not let success get to his head, nor is he bogged down by trolls. That’s his X-factor.
