Banjara (film)

Mushtaq Pasha the director of the film wanted to sign a film with Babbu Maan since last 10 years but Maan rejected his as he doesn't want to do action or comedies which were being told by Pasha. As, Babbu Maan is from family who used to have trucks and he also has personal interest in trucks so he suggested Pasha to create a film on trucks. Then, Pasha started working on the project and the story was written Dheeraj Rattan and dialogues by Surmeet Maavi. And hence, the project started and was titled as "Banjara" which refers to "traveller" in Punjabi.

As the story consists of three love stories of three generations of a family grandfather, father and son respectively. So, it was difficult task to cast three actors and actress. Then, Pasha suggested Maan to play all three roles as all the characters are from same family and the minor difference would be created by make-up. In all Maan's films every time new faces are seen as he is willing to give chance to new performers in Punjabi cinema so the three television actresses Shraddha Arya, Jia Mustafa and Sara Khatri were cast opposite to Maan. The film also stars Rana Ranbir, Gurpreet Bhangu, Rana Ahluwalia in supporting roles.

Principal photography of Banjara took place in Canada, Punjab and Suratgarh, Rajasthan between January 2018 and February 2018 where Binendra Menon served as a cinematographer.[1] The principal photography of old part of the film shot in Suratgarh took place in January 2018 whereas next schedule of the film was shot in Canada in February 2018.

Banjara has grossed est. ₹2.9 crore worldwide in its opening weekend, including est. ₹1.65 crore in India and ₹1.25 crore in other territories including ₹24.54 lacs in United States, ₹53.64 lacs in Canada, ₹12.57 lacs in United Kingdom, ₹17.02 lacs in Australia, ₹7.17 lacs in New Zealand.[9]

Jasmine Singh of The Tribune gave just 1 star out of 5 and calls the film "Strictly for Babbu Maan fans". Singh criticised the story and dialogues of the film saying, "If you don’t find a storyline, any hard-hitting effective dialogues, you will at least find the truck, in the old and the new versions."

And also criticised the cast, "It is in this phase that Babbu Mann talks in a pre-partition language, which sounds amusing and very forced. The story shifts from here to present day Vancouver where you are numbed by Babbu Mann’s dead pan expression (he lets his eyes do all the talking and acting), Shraddha Arya’s over acting, Rana Ranbir’s completely put on and fake Canadian Punjabi accent, and the omnipresent truck."

In last added, "If you have set out to find anything other than the truck and Babbu Mann in the film, then you will be completely disheartened but if this is all you wanted to see, you’ve hit the right road!"[10]