1980s
Chann Pardesi, the first Punjabi film to win the national award, was released in 1980, and was the biggest hit of that year. It starred Raj Babbar, Rama Vij, Amrish Puri, Om Puri, and Kulbhushan Kharbanda. Fauji Chacha had veteran Bollywood actor Sanjeev Kumar in the lead. A remake of Mulkh Raj Bhakhri's 1958 film Bhangra came out in 1980 from director Mohan Bhakhri. The film was titled Jatti, and starred Sundar, Nishi, Mehar Mittal, and Aparna Chowdhry. As with the original, the remake was a tremendous success.
1981 had only one hit: Balbiro Bhabhi. This film had Veerendra in the lead role. Two major releases of 1985 were Ucha Dar Babe Nanak Da and Sarpanch. The former was a religious film that established Gurdas Mann as a star. Sarpanch starred Veerendra. In 1983, many movies were released, with Putt Jattan De the biggest commercially. Veerendra had another hit in 1984 with the film Yaari Jatt Di. This film was the first Punjabi film to have more than half its footage shot in the United Kingdom. Mamla Garbar Hai was a hit for actor Gurdas Mann. The film's songs were especially loved.
Two hit films of 1985 were Mohammad Sadiq's Guddo and Veerendra's Vairi. Long Da Lishkara was the big hit of 1986, starring Raj Babbar, Gurdas Mann, Om Puri, and Nina Deol. In 1987 Veerendra starred in Patola and Jor Jatt Da. Punjab was shaken with the assassination of Veerendra by gunshot during the filming of Jatt Tey Zameen. The death opened the door for supporting actors including Gugu Gill and Yograj Singh to take leading roles.
1988 had no major film releases. In 1989 came the critically acclaimed Marhi Da Diva. The film starred Raj Babbar, Pankaj Kapur, Kanwaljit Singh, Parikshit Sahni, and Deepti Naval.
Read more about this topic: Cinema Of Punjab