Why do Punjab houses have planes on their rooftops? Did they inspire SRK’s Dunki?

Shah Rukh Khan-Taapsee Pannu starrer Dunki has finally been released in theatres. King Khan’s third film of the year is a much-anticipated movie that marks director Rajkumar Hirani’s return after five years.

Did you know the immigration drama is reportedly inspired by a unique house in Punjab’s Jalandhar? A picture shared by the makers of the movie showed Hirani in front of a house that had a big sculpture of an Air India plane on its terrace.

Speaking about the same, the director recently said in a ‘Dunki Diaries’ video shared by Red Chillies Entertainment, “Actually, this is not CGI; it is an actual home in Jalandhar, or, let’s say, nearby Jalandhar. In the image, you can see a huge aeroplane of cement atop a house. In Punjab, there are many dwellings where aeroplanes have been built upon their terraces.”

It is not just planes that grace the roofs of some residences in the northern state. Sometimes, it is a giant hawk, a football, or even a battle tank!

But why do some rooftops in Punjab, especially in the villages, have these aesthetics on display? Let’s take a closer look.

Planes on Punjab’s roofs

The origin of the variety of sculptures that sit atop the roofs of houses in rural areas of Punjab can be traced back to the late 1970s, as per BBC. It was during this time that immigrants from the state started building homes in their villages and installed these rooftop displays.

These airplane sculptures signified the aspirations of their owners, combined with a touch of their personal history, noted BBC.

Rajesh Vora, a Mumbai-based photographer had travelled over 6,000km across four districts in rural Punjab between 2014-15. Speaking to Hindustan Times (HT) in 2016, he said that while visiting the villages in the state two years back he had heard “rumours of successful wealthy immigrants, returning to their village, and placing an airplane model on their newly built homes”.

For non-resident Indians, it might be an airplane. However, the concrete rooftop art is not limited to planes.

From animals to tractors to even athletes, myriad sculptures on top of houses in Punjab. Many of these displays are fully functional water tanks. Some even signal their owner’s profession or passions.

According to Scroll.in, these unconventional water tanks have become a “symbol of social status”.

“Today, the houses are getting bigger and are adorned with just about everything that catches their fancy,” Vohra told HT in 2016.

Punjab’s love for airplanes

The craze among people in Punjab to settle abroad is also reflected in its Hawai Jahaz Waala gurdwara in the village Talhan. According to Indian Express, there is a legend around this Sikh temple, also known as Gurdwara Talhan Sahib, that if someone presents a toy airplane model here, their wish to get a foreign visa will be fulfilled.

The fascination with planes also goes beyond water-tank art.

In April, a man in Kapurthala built a 71-foot-long house in the shape of an airplane. Kamaljit Singh Wahid, who is based in London, spent a whopping $5 million (about Rs 41 crore) to build the residence 40 feet above the ground, possibly to give him a “sense of flight” while inside, as per New York Post.

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Inspiration for Dunki

Filmmaker Rajkumar Hirani, who visited a residence with a plane sculpture on its rooftop in Jalandhar for research purposes for Dunki, said that “it’s a cultural thing (in Punjab) where if a child or a family member of the house goes to a foreign country like London, Canada, or the USA, then they build a plane on the terrace of their home to flaunt it”.

To this, SRK replied: “It’s like a moment of pride that a family member has gone to a foreign country. I have also shot in Punjab several times. I have seen this as well, but I never knew why people build these at their homes. I used to think that it must be a water tanker, and people have just made a design out of it.”

Hirani confirmed these displays are mostly water tanks, but the house he visited with the Air India sculpture on the rooftop had “two bedrooms” in it.

Dunki is about ‘Donkey Flights’ where people who want to go abroad use illegal route to enter that country via multiple stops in other countries.

As Shah Rukh explained at a recent event, “Dunki is about an illegal trip. A lot of people take to get out of their country across borders all over the world. It’s called the donkey travel. Humare desh se bhi jate hai, doosre desh se bhi jate hai (people from our country, as well as other countries, undertake this journey)”.

With inputs from agencies