From almost quitting Mumbai to starring in Chamak - The Conclusion, Paramvir Singh Cheema has come a long way

Kabir Singh Bhandari

In a Zoom video interview with The Free Press Journal, Paramvir opened up about his journey, the Punjabi film industry, and his latest projects, including Black Warrant. In Sony Liv’s Chamak, Paramvir plays Kaala, an aspirational rapper from Canada who flees back to Punjab, learning about the mysterious murder of his father and iconic singer Taara Singh. The story unfolds the dark side of the music industry’s glamour and politics.

On the other hand, in Netflix’s much-talked-about Black Warrant, he played a jailor, Shivraj Singh Mangat, based on a book about Tihar Jail in the ’80s. Apart from these, he has also been part of several other projects such as Sapne Vs Everyone and Tabbar. While in Tabbar, Chamak, and Black Warrant he plays Sikh characters, Paramvir mentions he doesn’t want to be slotted just in that category.

No one in Paramvir’s family is an actor, and when he moved to Mumbai to pursue it, it wasn’t a smooth road. Although he got some good projects, after spending five years in the city, he decided to move back when the roles had dried up for a long time, and started considering sticking to his father’s farming business. However, with financial assistance and support from his father, he moved back and started going for auditions again — and now, with the release of Chamak and Black Warrant, he seems to be in a secure place, having established himself as an actor to reckon with.

During our interaction, he also told us how having a best friend helped him in playing a drunk in an episode of Black Warrant. “My best friend drinks a lot. So whenever I used to go to Punjab, I used to chill with him. And I used to look at how he would behave after six pegs — eight drinks — an entire bottle. What was the change in his body and how he would look at me and talk.

Because there is a very thin line between making it look caricaturish and portraying reality,” he explained to us. With a couple of interesting projects lined up, such as Border 2, another film with Anand L. Rai, and Sapne Vs Everyone Season 2 — along with a few that he cannot disclose now — it would be interesting to track this actor’s career trajectory.