Bollywood’s latest: Turbanators

By S Shanthi

The turban seems to be slowly making its way into Bollywood. Whether the inspiration behind is prime minister Manmohan Singh or Akshay Kumar, who played a sardar in the blockbuster Singh Is Kinng, many actors are trying their luck with the pagdi these days. Salman Khan plays a sardar in Heroes, Saif Ali Khan plays one in his home production Love Aaj Kal and Ranbir Kapoor too is joining the bandwagon with the Shamit Amin-directed Rocket Singh-Salesman of The Year. Aamir Khan went a step ahead and played the role of a 60-year-old sardar in the new Tata Sky campaign.
The reason, film experts say, is the great share of revenue of the movies coming from international markets where the presence of Punjabis is significant. According to figures from the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (Ficci), the total revenue from foreign box office has jumped from 5.3 per cent of the total revenue in 2005 to 9.8 per cent in 2008. And the US and Britain, with a huge Indian ethnic population, are now the two biggest foreign markets for Bollywood.
Others say that the reason could also be that scriptwriters’ love to explore different characters. “There was a time when negative roles were in vogue. Now it is portraying a Sikh. Scriptwriters keep experimenting with characters,” says filmmaker Ken Ghosh. “Different hair styles have been in vogue and so have the roles,” says film critic Taran Adarsh. “During Govinda’s time, many did comedy roles, then came negative roles. Then many liked performing the character of don, now a sardar role is getting popular,” he adds.
Experts say that while the sardar look suits many actors, some can carry off the style of language too. Before this, some actors have performed as Sikhs, but it hasn’t been a trend. For example Sunny Deol donned the role in Border as Major Kuldip Singh and in Gaddar as truck driver Tara Singh, Amitabh Bachchan in the movie Kohram as Col Balbir Singh Sodhi, Bobby Deol in 23rd March 1931: Shaheed and Ajay Devgan in The Legend Of Bhagat Singh, which won him a National Award for the best actor. However, many said that Amitabh Bachchan did not quite ‘fit’ as a sardar in terms the of the persona and neither did Ajay Devgan. “You can never say who is the best in a sardar role because it all depends on the character. Akshay, Salman, Saif everyone fits the bill. They all look good and act well. Sunny Deol looked very good in Border. His attitude was perfect too. It doesn’t depend on the person portraying the role, it depends more on the character and script. Akshay was a superhit because of the script,” adds Ghosh.
While Singh is Kinng turned out to be a blockbuster, the Sikh community, for Akshay Kumar’s half-shaven look, raised many objections. The controversy only ended after Akshay Kumar apologised to the Sikh community saying: “If I’ve made a mistake, lord forgive me and I will try to rectify my mistake.” He then flew down from South Africa to re-shoot parts of the film.
There is no such look as ‘perfect’ because in real life there are so many people from the same community who look different, says film trade analyst Komal Nahta. “Whatever you do, some people will always have objections because they want cheap publicity. Since this is a character of a particular community, it is more of a problem,” he says.
Whoever performs, with so many people donning pagdi, Singh seems to be the king in Bollywood for now.