Hindi
Will the sports-films juggernaut roll on?
MUMBAI: With all eyes trained on next week‘s release of yet another sports oriented film the debate hots up. Have sports films done well in India or is Chak De an aberration? Film lovers, trade analysts, filmmakers, et al are analyzing this trend almost as if they have discovered a new sport.
People are going ballistic about the arrival of Vivek Agnihotri‘s Goal or is it Dhan Dhana Dhan Goal? Whatever…it is a film about football shot in UK. The producers of Goal UTV Motion Pictures claim to have recovered their cost of production even before the release of the film. But don‘t all producers recover their money prior to a film‘s release? What is important to observe is how the film fares with the audiences. A film is made for theatres and hence the litmus test is the theatrical release.
India has always been a nation of sports lovers. Cricket is an anthem for most Indians and now we have discovered hockey and may be football in the coming week. Chak De revived interest in hockey and the film‘s title song has become a sort of anthem cheering Indian teams to victory in various sporting events. A sport which had greats like Dhyan Chand to Dhanraj Pillai. And almost all of them have a story waiting to be told. But unfortunately it took a Shahrukh to leverage this forgotten sport.
Trade analyst Taran Adarsh says that not many filmmakers have attempted to make sports films. “Producers always felt that sports based films never did well at the box office. This is a myth. Everything boils down to content. I think that filmmakers should attempt to make such films.”
Jo Jeeta Wohi Sikander, Hip Hip Hurray (a film on football made almost twenty years ago), Iqbal, Lagaan, Tara rum pum were all sport-centred films. With the exception of Lagaan and to a small extent Iqbal none of them made it big at the box office. But the Chak De of yesteryears was the 1956 classic Naya Daur. The film was a hit when it was released five decades ago and even now when it was recently released in its new coloured avatar.
So what is it there to be so gung-ho about now? Goal may have more to it than football. But it is being promoted as a sports film to cash in on the current rage for such films. The kind of money that has been pumped in to generate viewer interest could be used to make a Bheja Fry.
Taran Adarsh is optimistic and believes the film will do well. “Sports and films do go together. Today audiences want to listen to good stories. It could be sports based themes. As long as you have a good story the film will do well.”
So for the meanwhile the juggernaut rolls on with more such films to hit the screens. The soon to release Raaste, Mazhab, Cycle Kick may score a goal.
In a music industry that often rewards speed, spectacle, and instant recall, Navjot Ahuja’s journey feels refreshingly different. His story is not built on noise. It is built on patience, discipline, emotional honesty, and a quiet commitment to becoming better with every passing year. After 14 years of struggle, learning, performing, and writing, Navjot stands today as an artist whose success has not changed his centre. If anything, it has only made his purpose clearer.
For Navjot, music has never been about chasing fame alone. It has always been about expression. It is about writing more truthfully, singing more skillfully, understanding himself more deeply, and becoming a kinder human being in the process. That rare clarity is what gives his journey its beauty.
Where It All Began: A Writer Before a Singer
Indian singer and songwriter Navjot Ahuja’s musical journey began in the most familiar of places: school assemblies. But even then, what was growing inside him was not only the desire to sing. It was the need to write.
Long before he saw himself as a performer, he had already discovered the emotional release that writing offered him. For Navjot, words became the first true channel for feeling. Songwriting came before singing because writing was the only way he could let emotions flow through him fully. That inner pull shaped his artistic identity early on.
Like many young musicians, he sharpened his craft by creating renditions of popular songs.
Those experiments became his training ground. But the turning point came in 2012, when he wrote his first original song. That moment did not just mark the beginning of songwriting. It marked the beginning of self-definition.
A Calling He Did Not Chase, But Accepted
What makes the latest Indian singer-songwriter Navjot’s story especially compelling is the way he describes his relationship with music. He does not frame it as a career he aggressively pursued. In his own understanding, music was not something he chose. It was something that chose him.
There was a time when he imagined a very different future for himself. He wanted to become a successful engineer, like many young people shaped by ambition and conventional expectations. But life had a different script waiting for him. During his college years, around 2021, music entered his life professionally and began taking a firmer shape.
That shift was not driven by image-building or industry ambition. It came from acceptance. Navjot embraced the fact that music had claimed him in a way no other path could. That sense of surrender continues to define the artist he is today.
An Artist Guided by Instinct, Not Influence
Unlike many singers who speak openly about idols, icons, and musical role models, Navjot’s creative world is built differently. He does not believe his music comes from imitation or inherited influence. He listens inward.
He has never considered himself shaped by ideals in the traditional sense. In fact, he admits that he does not particularly enjoy listening to songs, especially his own. His decisions as a songwriter and singer come from instinct. He writes what feels right. He trusts what his inner voice tells him. He positions his music according to what he honestly believes in, not what trends demand.
That creative independence gives his work a distinct emotional sincerity. His songs do not feel calculated. They feel alive.
The Long Years of Invisible Struggle
Every artist carries a chapter of struggle, and Navjot’s was long, demanding, and deeply formative. One of the biggest challenges he faced was building continuity as the best new indian singer songwriter in an era where musical collaboration is increasingly fluid.
For emerging singers, especially those trying to build with a band, consistency can be difficult. Instrumentalists today have more opportunities than ever to freelance and perform with multiple artists. While that growth is positive and well deserved, it can make things harder for singers who are still trying to establish a steady team and sound around their work.
For Navjot, one of the most difficult phases came during 2021 and 2022, when he was doing club shows almost every day. It was a period of relentless performance, but not always personal fulfillment. He was largely singing covers because clubs were not open to original songs that audiences did not yet know.
For a new Indian singer and songwriter, that can be a painful compromise. To perform constantly and still not have the freedom to share your own voice requires not just resilience, but restraint.
“Khat” and the Grace of Staying Unchanged
After 14 years of effort, Navjot’s new love song Khat became a defining milestone. Professionally, he acknowledges that the song changed how society viewed him as a musician. It strengthened his place in the public eye and altered his standing in meaningful ways.
Yet personally, he remains unchanged.
That is perhaps the most striking part of his story. Navjot says his routine is still the same. His calm is still the same. His writing process is still the same. He does not want success or failure to interfere with the purity of his art. For him, emotional detachment from public outcomes is essential because the moment an artist becomes too attached to validation, the writing begins to shift.
His joy comes not from numbers, but from the attempt. If he has tried to improve his skill today, if he has written his heart out more honestly than before, then he is at peace.
Growth, Not Glory, Remains the Real Goal
Even now, Navjot is not consumed by labels such as singles artist, performer, or digital success story. His focus remains deeply personal. He wants to sing better. He wants to play instruments better. He wants to understand himself more. And he wants to become a kinder person.
That is what makes Navjot Ahuja’s journey so moving. It is not simply the story of a musician finding recognition. It is the story of an artist who continues to grow inward, even as the world begins to look outward at him. In an age obsessed with applause, Navjot reminds us that the most meaningful success often begins in silence, honesty, and the courage to remain true to oneself.
