at a time when hollywood films like avengers infinity war solo a star wars story and bollywood films like raazi parmanu the story of pokhran and veere di wedding are running successfully in cinemas a punjabi film carry on jatta 2 also has a considerable number of shows across cinemas in ncr in fact in the last few weeks films like golak bugni bank te batua daana paani bhai taru singh and laung laachi have also had an average occupancy of over 85 in cinemas across delhi noida and gurgaon exhibitors tell us that theyve also become increasingly dependent on punjabi movies to pack cinema halls they say that a punjabi film coupled with good content and cast does well across all of ncr and not just west delhidaana paanidaana paanipollywood has secured a good position in ncr in the last two years and now over 5070 shows are screened almost every day in delhi noida and gurgaon the lines of consumption of regional cinema across areas in ncr have also blurred earlier cinema from a particular state gained viewers in certain areas in the capital for example west delhi is one area where punjabi films were popular but that popularity has extended to other areas in the city as well actress sargun mehta who has acted in several punjabi films tells us content has changed and now punjabi films are houseful not just in west delhi but in south delhi too citing an example a cinema manager says if you look at the movie listing pages of booking websites youll find punjabi films next to hindi and english in ncr and this positioning is only because of their growing popularitylaung laachilaung laachistar power good content attracts viewers actors like diljit dosanjh and gippy grewal have a good fanfollowing in north india and when they promote their projects on social media it creates a buzz among fans outside punjab as well reality shows play a role too joginder mahajan a delhibased film distributor says a number of punjabi film actors are part of tv reality shows and thats why they have a good fan following we receive a lot of feedback from the audience in delhi saying that they went for a punjabi film only after they spotted a known face on the hoardingyogesh raizada corporate head wave cinemas tells us the producers of punjabi films bank on this familiarity formula and going by the packed cinema halls it seems that casting recognisable faces has indeed proved to be fruitful the most successful punjabi movies in recent times had a combo of good content and famous actors lahoriya starring sargun mehta and manje bistre starring gippy grewal are examples a chandigarhbased distributor says star power definitely works when a moviegoer who otherwise is not interested in a punjabi film sees a familiar face like jimmy shergill or diljit dosanjh on a poster he wants to watch it but star power alone doesnt run regional films another reason