ਹੌਬੀ ਧਾਲੀਵਾਲਹੌਬੀ ਧਾਲੀਵਾਲ

Hobby Dhaliwal, full name Kamaldeep Singh Dhaliwal, is a veteran Punjabi character actor and singer from Sangrur in Malwa, known for playing fathers, sarpanchs, police officers and village elders across more than fifty Punjabi films. He made his film debut in Burrraahh in 2012 and is best known as Gajjan Singh in Angrej, Chaudhary in Lahoriye and Sohan in Ardaas Karaan.

Early life and education

Dhaliwal was born in Sangrur, Punjab. Some profiles name his home village as Chaprouda in Sangrur district, though stronger film sources give simply Sangrur, and this page follows them. Published profiles disagree sharply about his birth year, offering dates as far apart as 1961 and 1977, and one widely copied timeline does not fit the marriage year the same profiles report. Because no reliable source settles the question, this page does not state a birth year.

He was schooled at a government school in Patiala and went on to graduate from Government Mohindra College, Patiala. That college connection matters to his story, because it was on college stages, not in films, that his performing life began, years before Punjabi cinema found a place for him.

From college stages to singing

During college functions, Dhaliwal was noticed by Pammi Bai, the celebrated Punjabi folk singer and bhangra performer from Patiala. Pammi Bai encouraged the young performer, and the two later shared stages. Before acting took over, Dhaliwal built a career as a singer in his own right, releasing three studio albums: Mar Jangeero Geda, Sade Pind Na Aavi and Jatt Warga Yaar Ni Thiona.

Profiles also credit him with television work before his film debut, including the Punjabi serial Aag de Kalire. The details of that early television period are thinly documented, but the pattern is clear: Dhaliwal arrived in films as an experienced stage and music performer, not as a newcomer learning the craft on set.

How did Hobby Dhaliwal become a Punjabi film regular?

His film debut came with Burrraahh in 2012, directed by Sagar S. Sharma, in which he played Sidhu. Work followed quickly: a sarpanch in Fer Mamla Gadbad Gadbad and a father in Heer and Hero, both in 2013, then Mr Sandhu in Mundeyan Ton Bachke Rahin in 2014. In 2015 he appeared in Punjabian Da King and in Shareek, a family drama built around a land dispute, playing Nachattar.

The turning point was the volume and variety of that early work. Directors casting the older generation of a Punjabi story, the father whose word settles a dispute, the sarpanch, the police officer, kept returning to the same face. By the middle of the decade Dhaliwal was one of the busiest supporting actors in the industry, and his name had become a fixture in ensemble casts alongside stars a generation younger.

Breakthrough roles in Angrej and Lahoriye

Angrej (2015), Simerjit Singh's period romance set in 1945, cast him as Gajjan Singh, father of Dhann Kaur, the character played by Sargun Mehta. The film, led by Amrinder Gill with Ammy Virk and Binnu Dhillon, became one of the defining Punjabi films of its decade, and Dhaliwal's stern, rooted presence anchored its village world. He followed it with Bambukat in 2016 and a role in the first Ardaas the same year.

In Lahoriye (2017), a Partition story starring Amrinder Gill and Sargun Mehta, he played Chaudhary, father of Naseem, a part that placed him at the emotional centre of a cross-border love story. The same year brought Jora 10 Numbaria, in which he played Teja Aulakh, along with Manje Bistre, Saab Bahadar, Arjan, Bailaras and Dangar Doctor Jelly, where he played DSP Kabul Singh. Few Punjabi actors of his generation matched that output in a single year.

The character actor Punjabi films call on

Read down his filmography and a pattern emerges: fathers in Laung Laachi, Kurmaiyan, Parahuna and Bhajjo Veero Ve, a bhangra coach in Ashke, an uncle in Carry On Jatta 2 (2018), where he played Mr Sandhu, Meet's uncle, and authority figures of every kind, from a chief minister in Thug Life to police officers and village heads. It is the classic career of the character actor: rarely the name above the title, often the performance that makes the lead's world believable.

That reliability carried into Ardaas Karaan (2019), Gippy Grewal's sequel to Ardaas, where Dhaliwal played Sohan, father of Sehaj, played by Grewal himself. The film, co-starring Gurpreet Ghuggi, dealt with the distance between parents and children who have settled abroad, and his role placed him again at the generational hinge of the story. Punjabi Mania's archive counts 51 released films across his career, from 2012 onwards.

Hindi films, web series and later work

Dhaliwal has also worked in Hindi cinema, usually again as the father or elder: Kanan's father in Phillauri (2017), Param's Bauji in Namaste England (2018), a role in Khandaani Shafakhana (2019), and IB 71 (2023), the Hindi period thriller. BookMyShow's filmography keeps adding credits through the decade: Bajre Da Sitta in 2022, Medal and Dastaan-E-Sirhind in 2023, Sector 17 in 2024, and Gangland and Mehar in 2025. He has also appeared in Punjabi web series, extending the same supporting presence to streaming audiences.

A step into politics

On 7 February 2022, in Chandigarh, Dhaliwal formally joined the Bharatiya Janata Party, alongside actor Mahie Gill, in the presence of Haryana chief minister Manohar Lal Khattar and union minister Gajendra Singh Shekhawat, ahead of the Punjab assembly elections. The move made him one of several Punjabi film figures who entered party politics that election season. He has continued acting alongside his political affiliation, and this page makes no claim about electoral roles beyond that reported joining.