Ravie Dubey-Sargun Mehta on Punjabi Films, 'Saunkan Saunkanay 2' Box-Office and Why the Industry is Ready For the Pan-India Spotlight

Actor-couple Ravie Dubey and Sargun Mehta exude an infectious energy, their faces beaming with pride, as they settle into their virtual nook for a Zoom chat about everything they are doing as producers (and they are doing a lot). Armed with almost two decades of industry experience, the couple is putting their learnings into practice by backing Punjabi feature films, creating micro dramas for YouTube, and producing TV shows as well as music.

"I think the headspace is sometimes cluttered, sometimes really focused!" laughs Mehta with Dubey next to her, marvelling at how the duo has backed five feature films in the six years since they launched Dreamiyata Drama, the multi-vertical entertainment company.

They also have another distinction to be proud of: Producing Saunkan Saunkanay 2, the blockbuster comedy starring Ammy Virk along with Mehta, which has emerged as the highest-grossing Punjabi film in India of the year so far, with over ₹40 crore.

"We are doing everything on the broad spectrum because you have to prepare yourself for the big fight from all angles. Inherently, both of us are storytellers and we want to use our years of experience to tell stories and build a bank of them," the couple shares.

In an interview with THR India, Dubey and Mehta talk about the state of Punjabi film industry, box-office, budgets and why the industry is on the cusp of a revolution.

Edited excerpts:

You produced Saukhan Saukhane 2, which is one of the highest-grossing Punjabi films of the year. But what do these numbers mean for the industry? If one were to say that the Telugu film industry is having a shining pan-India moment, the Hindi film industry is back on track, where is the Punjabi film industry?

S: At a very nascent stage. When I joined this industry in 2015, approximately four films were being made in a year and we did good numbers even then. Now the film industry is making 70-100 films a year! Earlier, we didn't have many options as limited films were getting made, but the growth in volume shows the kind of money that is coming into the industry.

Big players from the Hindi market have entered the industry. In fact, we were the first ones to get Zee Studios with us for the superhit film Kala Shah Kala, which was our first production. So, there is a lot of potential in the industry and the region, and we are witnessing our share of hits and flops, but there is a constant evolution underway.

The good thing about regional cinema is that because we're telling absolutely authentic and raw stories, there is a large, loyal audience wanting to see homegrown films, as opposed to those that tell a story from a bird's eye, broader point of view.

Which is what works for us. Our film Saunkan Saunkne did a global gross of ₹60 crore and even the sequel was a blockbuster. It is huge because there is a limited audience that you have to capture. So, this gives us a push to open up to new genres, which we are doing in our next film. It is going to be a first for the industry.

From 2019 to 2025, making five films from pre-pandemic to post-pandemic, what has been the learning curve?

Ravie: In the six and a half years, we may have started with Punjabi films, but we also ventured into Indian television, which is a completely different professional dynamic. It requires a completely different professional ethic. It is a highly deadline-centric medium. So, the learning cannot be actually isolated only to Punjabi films, whatever we have gathered so far and what we have with our positive intent, tried to apply and deploy into our various professional strategies that we are going with now. A lot of it actually comes from the Hindi television production space as well.

When you're fighting the deadline every single day, the important question is: How to stay true to your voice, to somehow not let a lot of noise overwhelm the logistical and the creative challenges. What has been a great learning for me and Sargun is that whatever we do, it has to always have our voice.

We have to somehow kind of block all the noise from the outside and be truly excited about what we are making and whether we are going to sit in a cinema hall, in front of a TV screen or listen to a song that we are producing and enjoy it. We don't look for validation from outside when we begin, and only once, when we are absolutely convinced and we have delivered the final product, do we invite the team to see it and give their feedback. And then of course, when there is positive feedback, we apply it. But to begin with, we try to stay away from too many cooks spoiling the broth.

Ravie Dubey

If Telugu cinema's breakout moment was Baahubali, the Kannada film industry roared with KGF and the Marathi film industry crossed over with Sairat, what could be the game-changing point in the Punjabi film industry and where does it stand today?

S: It is ever-evolving, but I don't think it has currently reached the breakout stage. But for its own health, I think the first time it arrived was Carry On Jatta (2012) and Jatt & Juliet (2012), followed by other titles that gave the first big push to the industry after a really long, low phase. My debut film Angrej in 2015 gave a new life to the love story genre as well as to stories that were authentic to the region, as the film was set in the 1940s.

A few years later, we had a film called Qismat (2018), which was an 'experimental' film for Punjab, as the notion was that only comedies work there but this was an emotional film about longing, which hit it out of the park. In recent years, it was Carry On Jatta 3 which became the first Punjabi film to cross ₹100 crore at the global box-office.

R: It made everyone see that there was a possibility of hitting those huge numbers.

S: Exactly, because before that, we were doing numbers like ₹60-70 crore, but ₹100 crore was that big breakout number and remains. That brought the spotlight on us. But what it also led to was people believing that these landmark numbers can only come with a comedy film. So, the next step has to be to achieve those numbers again, with different genres, regularly.

Sargun Mehta

Ravie, you were talking about the deadline-centric environment of TV. In what practical sense has that helped you in making films?

R: I think the insight that television gives you is absolutely incredible when it comes to production. Because you have to deliver incredible things on a deadline, like a sword hanging above your neck constantly. The key is to engage billions of people in an appointment viewing engagement model. TV is not a binge-viewing model where everything is archived for later. So the learning it gives one is to think on their feet. When it comes to thinking on their feet creatively, logistically, production-wise, you're far more trained to handle a crisis if you handle television production as opposed to any other kind of production. On TV, you have nothing in your control!

I remember when I used to do a TV show, my telecast would be at 8.30 PM and there were many times that I was shooting for the final segment of my show after 8.30 PM! So maybe the part of the episode that was to go between 8.50 and 9 PM was being shot at 8.30 PM!

So, you can only be equipped to handle a crisis if you face it repeatedly. I would, any given day, choose a technical talent from television to deliver my voice in films as opposed to somebody who has not faced that crisis ever.

What is a good number, budget-wise, for a mid-sized Punjabi film?

S: Anywhere between ₹8-10 crores is a good number; it can also be ₹10 -15 crores, depending on the size and scale. What increases the budget in our industry is music, which is expensive. Back in Punjab, music is a huge deal.

What are the practical ways in which a Punjabi film can have a huge breakout moment going forward?

S: One of the ways is exactly the way that we're working on for the last several months. We're working on this particular script, a film that we feel can have a bigger impact. But I don't think we can apply a formula to it or design it. We are green-lighting films that we would like to watch on the big screen and this is why there is an attempt to announce a couple of films we have been sincerely working towards. The hope is that they land well and cross over.