Sector 62 junction renamed Jaswinder Bhalla Chowk
- Mohali has renamed the Sector 62 roundabout near PUDA Bhawan as Dr Jaswinder Bhalla Chowk on May 4, marking the late comedian’s birth anniversary. - The tribute lands less than a year after Bhalla’s death on August 22, 2025, with his family’s new foundation set to maintain the site. - It matters because public landmarks here rarely honor entertainment figures, putting Punjabi comedy into the city’s official civic memory.
A city junction sounds like a small thing. But naming one after Jaswinder Bhalla is really Mohali deciding what kind of public memory it wants to keep. On May 4, the roundabout in Sector 62 near PUDA Bhawan was officially designated Dr Jaswinder Bhalla Chowk, turning a busy everyday landmark into a tribute to one of Punjabi entertainment’s most recognizable faces. The timing is the point — May 4 is Bhalla’s birth anniversary, and the move comes less than a year after his death in August 2025. ### Why this junction? Because it is not some hidden corner. The roundabout sits in Sector 62 near PUDA Bhawan and the Punjab School Education Board — a high-visibility civic zone where thousands of people pass through. That makes the naming symbolic in a very practical way. Bhalla is not being remembered in a private hall or one-off event; he is being folded into the city’s daily map. ### Why now? The date ties the tribute directly to Bhalla’s life story. He was born on May 4, 1960, and the naming was planned for May 4, 2026, his 66th birth anniversary. That gives the ceremony a memorial shape rather than just an administrative one. It also follows quickly after his death on August 22, 2025, when he died in Mohali after a brain stroke at age 65. ### Why does Bhalla matter that much? Because he was bigger than a film comedian. Bhalla came up through *Chhankata*, the satirical series that made him a household name, and then carried that same sharp, everyday Punjabi humor into films. He was the kind of performer little sly. ### Wasn’t he also an academic? Yes — and that is part of why his legacy feels unusually broad. Before and alongside film work, Bhalla earned a PhD in Extension Education and served at Punjab Agricultural University, eventually heading that department before retiring in 2020. So the public image was never just worth memorializing in street geography. ### Who is looking after the site? His family has started building that part of the legacy too. After Bhalla’s death, his wife Parmdeep Kaur Bhalla wanted a platform that could carry his work forward, and the Dr Jaswinder Singh Bhalla Foundation was registered on April 22. The foundation is set to help maintain the roundabout, which matters because memorials fade fast if nobody owns the upkeep. ### Why is this unusual? Because roads and roundabouts in the Chandigarh-Mohali area are usually named after political leaders, martyrs, or national figures. Entertainment personalities rarely get that kind of civic recognition. One of the few comparable examples is the area associated with Dara Studio and Dara Singh. So this is not just a tribute to Bhalla personally — it is a small upgrade in status for Punjabi popular culture itself. ### What is the bigger takeaway? Basically, Mohali is saying comedy counts as public heritage. Not just politics. Not just war memory. Not just administration. A roundabout name will not explain Bhalla to anyone who never knew him, but it keeps his name in circulation — on signboards, directions, and daily speech. That is how cultural memory sticks.
