Punjabi Comedy Movies — Where to Start With Pollywood Comedy

Gippy Grewal in a film built around a village wedding. The title refers to the cots and bedding borrowed from neighbours to house the guests, which tells you the register — loose and episodic rather than plot-driven, and better for it.

Ammy Virk and Sonam Bajwa in a broad romantic comedy about a young man trying to marry into a family with other plans. It launched a series that has run to three more films — 2017, 2019 and 2025 — and moved Ammy Virk from supporting comic roles into leads.

Diljit Dosanjh as a ghost hunter, in a horror-comedy that leans far harder on the comedy half. It was one of the biggest Punjabi releases of its year and got a sequel in 2016. A good demonstration of how comfortably Punjabi cinema mixes genres.

Gippy Grewal, Diljit Dosanjh and Neeru Bajwa in one of the films that set up the boom that followed a year later. It is dated in places, but it is useful viewing if you want to see the style before it hardened into a formula.

Jassi Gill and Binnu Dhillon in a con-comedy where nearly every character is pretending to be someone else and the audience is the only party keeping track. The title is a joke about Section 420 of the Indian Penal Code, the cheating provision.

Binnu Dhillon in a lead role rather than as comic relief, in a film about a wedding that repeatedly comes close to not happening. A good showcase for how much of Punjabi screen comedy actually rests on his timing rather than on the writing.

Diljit Dosanjh, Sonam Bajwa and Shehnaaz Gill in a single-father comedy set in Canada. It was one of the biggest Punjabi releases of 2021 and is the most contemporary-feeling film on this list — the jokes assume an audience that lives abroad.

Jimmy Sheirgill in an NRI comedy-drama from before the 2012 boom. It earns its place because it shows what the Punjabi mainstream looked like when the diaspora, rather than Punjab itself, was the audience a film was primarily made for.