The Legend of Maula Jatt: Ammara Hikmat sheds light on the Punjabi dialect

Being a Pashtun herself, the producer of the upcoming film highlighted the importance of ethnic languages

Based on a 1979 Punjabi classic, The Legend of Maula Jatt is one of the most anticipated big screen projects to come out of Pakistani cinema in recent times. The film, unfortunately, has been in the works for the past five years, marred in controversy, and we can only hope that it hits the screens sometime soon.

But that hasn’t stopped producer Ammara Hikmat from hyping up her upcoming project. The film-maker recently spoke about the ethnic languages of Pakistan, adding on her Instagram stories that The Legend of Maula Jatt is made her realise how rich Punjabi language is, in terms of expression.

“Being from a Pashtun background, I can’t relate to why Punjabis don’t own their language proudly and pass it on to the next generations,” began Hikmat on her social media. “It has been reduced to a language only spoken to communicate with domestic help. I hope all Punjabis do know that being multilingual is ‘cool,’ way cooler than raising kids who can only speak the third mostly and widely-used English.”

Using the hashtag #OwnYourLanguage, Hikmat concluded, “Not even Urdu? You are denying your next generation not only diversity but a chance to inherit one of the most widely spoken languages in the world. The language is poetry; a cultural treasure, i.e. Punjabi.”

From the creators of hit blockbuster Waar, the star-cast of The Legend of Maula Jatt includes Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Hamza Ali Abbasi, Humaima Malick, Gohar Rasheed and Resham.