Amar Singh Chamkila has been one of the most celebrated singers that Punjab has ever produced. He was popularly known as ‘Elvis Of Punjab’. Unfortunately, the singer was shot dead with his wife at the age of 27. However, in his short career span, he created massive records and left legacy behind to be cherished by the generations. It was his popularity that late Bollywood actress Sridevi also wanted to work with him.
A friend of Amar Singh Chamkila and veteran lyricist Sawaran Sivia in one of the interviews revealed, “Sridevi was a fan of Amar Singh Chamkila. She asked him to be her hero in a film. But he told her, ‘I can’t speak Hindi’. She offered to get him training in the language within a month, but he refused, saying, ‘I will lose Rs 10 lakh in that one month’. Sridevi agreed to do a Punjabi film with him, but it couldn’t happen,” the lyricist claimed.
In addition to this, he also shared one of the anecdotes close to his heart describing Chamkila as a ‘gem of a person’. “Amar Singh Chamkila was loved immensely by people in Punjab. People only know Amar Singh Chamkila as a singer. Only a few know that he was a gem of a person. When he once came home in 1986, he saw my mother was sick. He gave me Rs 10,000, and it was a huge amount then,” he recalled.
No wonder, he is remembered even years after his death by the music lovers globally.
