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WSN Readers’
Tribute to Ishmeet Singh
World Sikh News joins all its readers in posthumously wishing
greetings to Ishmeet Singh on his 21st birthday. We thank
all our readers who chose the medium of the WSN to express their
feelings for the departed soul.
We thank Jasvir Kaur, Ekta Mehta, Taranjit Kaur from Spain, Lakhvir
Kaur – a student studying Accounting and Financial Management in
Leicester, UK, Kim Dhillon –an accountant from Hong Kong, Bhupinder
Kaur Preety, a merchandising student from Hong Kong, Phavanjeet Kaur
from Malaysia, Manjeet Kaur from Singapore, Gurjot Keerat, Paramjit
Singh Cherra, Sarabjit Kaur -a freelance event management
professional from Delhi, Pavandeep Singh, a student from London,
Abineet Kaur, Maninder Sanghera from Surrey, Canada, Kiran Kaur
Dhillon from Ilford, Soni Kumar -a mass communication student from
US Soni Kumar from US, Amrita Arneja –a homemaker from Luxembourg,
Mahanjot Singh Sodhi –a Consultant from Toronto, Canada, Jasmeet
Singh Bhogal –a senior software engineer with IBM from New Delhi,
the husband-wife team of Ravinder Pal Singh and Sumeet Kaur, Zahida
Virjee –an artist and an ardent fan, Vaneet Singh -Mechanical
engineer from Utah, USA, Manpreet Singh from UK and our fabulous
actor from Mumbai –Manmeet Singh, who wrote in their replies in
response to our questionnaire.
Here are replies to your questions –one by one, which will be
presented to the family of Ishmeet Singh soon. The replies have
been edited for reasons of clarity.
How should Sikhs
handle their misrepresentation in Bollywood?
 Manjot
Kaur: I
feel all the Sikhs working in that industry should learn from this
20 year old singer. Sikhs are not a joke. Yes, I do agree they have
a happy-go-lucky type image, but that doesn't mean Sikhs are only
there for a joke everytime! It’s not anyone else's fault, it’s them
who agree to everything. This is why they can't get the main lead in
Bollywood and are always there to make a fool out of themselves. But
not every Sikh who is there is like that, but there are a few who
don't care! I hope the new generation changes this misrepresentation
and takes our Sikh community ahead in everything, not only Bollywood!
They should learn from Ishmeet, who in 8 months not only conquered
so many hearts, but also became an icon for Sikh youth!
Taranjeet Kaur:
I think that we should talk about this with Bollywood and clarify
everything. At all, we all are human: of meat and bone!
Kim Dhillon:
I think Sikhs should not stop, sit. They should go on with their
efforts to get into the Bollywood and achieve. In order to get into
Bollywood, they should remember their religion. Bollywood is not
only for non-Sikhs, it's for everyone.
Bhupinder Kaur:
In my view, he wanted all of us to get closer to God and walk on the
path with faith and loyalty. Just remember him in our hearts and
follow the path he showed (being loyal to the religion, to everyone
and above all to yourself).
Zahida Virjee:
So when
a Bollywood star passes away - we have seen them being mentioned
during Zee Awards and other Awards, how is Ishmeet less than a
Bollywood star?
Manjeet Kaur:
Well this depends on individual perspective...so unless we change
the negative thinking into positive nothing much can be done.
Manmeet Singh:
Misuse
of any situation will always be practiced by those who are used to
it.
I think presently we should be only bothered about how we can
spread the message among our youth giving his example that Guru
Maharaj apne singhann nu hamesha chardi kala'ch rakhday nay
bhaavain o koi v FIELD'ch howay, buss be a Gursikh.... A
Gursikh Actor, A Gursikh Singer, A Gursikh Businessman, A Gursikh
Engineer.
Ravinder Pal Singh/Sumeet
Kaur: No
matter how much money you get and how much fame you get, never
appreciate any Sikh who is not following rules of Sikhism if he is
there in Bollywood or Hollywood. Always protest against the person
who is misrepresenting the Sikh image in Bollywood.
 Jasmeet
Singh Bhogal:
Well... The answer
for this question is not straight forward.
I worked in Chennai for 2 years. I noticed that the southern
states in
India
say Tamil Nadu, have their own film industry. People over there
watch movies made by their own people.
Likewise, Punjabi film industry needs to be made strong so
that we can show Bollywood what we expect from them. Bollywood will
learn from Punjabi film industry about the Do's and Donts while
working on a Sikh character. If Punjabi film industry will put in
time and effort to identify and develop Sikh talent in acting then
Bollywood will also give them chance in their movies.
Mahanjot S. Sodhi:
There’s a saying that in order to change a system you have to get
into that system. Criticizing something by sitting on the fence
isn’t going to help! Although majority of the parents would aspire
their children to become doctors, engineers & lawyers if your child
is more inclined towards music, film-direction, modelling or acting
and especially has the full spirits and zest of doing so with their
Sikhi Saroop encourage them to do so that they can go ahead with
their careers within the entertainment industry and break the
stereo-types that Bollywood has created and be that a slap in the
faces of all who portray Sikhs as clowns! Ishmeet’s foray into this
very system was a step in the right direction. Although it’ll be
very hard to emulate Ishmeet for what he had achieved we can only
pray to the Almighty to bless us with more Gursikh sons and
daughters like him so that the image portrayed by anti Sikh
interests to the world can be changed.
Amrita Arneja:
In
general, we should just stay confident and strong of what we have.
Once we ignore the rest, things will fall into place. The KEY is
confidence.
Soni Kumar:
Just keep your
Sikh religion and pray, God will take care of everything.
Maninder Sanghera:
Ishmeet
was a very talented person and had built his confidence during his
presentation in Star Voice of India shows. However, he said he
would keep learning; he is no longer here to prove himself so I
don't think anyone should be misrepresenting him. if he was
physically living, Sikhs wouldn't get too emotional and go against
Bollywood but now that he is no longer with us...it would be very
bad for Bollywood to misrepresent him. Surely just not Sikhs ...all
of his fans would react.
Abhineet Kaur:
Just the
way Ishmet did. ..do hard work and be true to your Guru.
Pavandeep Singh:
Sikhs must enter Bollywood and force change. They must find roles in
the media, in different industries such as Television, Music etc.
and not compromise their religion for success. After all, Ishmeet
was what he was because of his religion. People cared much more
because of his discipline towards his religion. We cannot let others
become idols. We must all become idols, lead by example so that
nobody can question us. For example, a true Sikh should not swear,
or be immature, especially in front of people, as they will then
treat his entire race accordingly. During my visit to Punjab, I
found that many Sikhs behave immaturely to gain attention. This
behavior is then shown in Hindi films, although in an exaggerated
manner.
 Sarabjeet
Kaur: I
believe in this context we Sikh are too touchy. We should come out
of that decades-old mind set, that such representation will malign
our image. Our community is not that petty that such trifle things
can shake it. We must always remember that if we are presented in
such light then characters belonging to other communities are also
shown in a comical way in almost every movie and besides in some
movies Sikh characters have been portrayed in a very strong and seen
manner like Border, Ab tumhare hawaale watan saathiyo, Raja ki
aayegi baraat, Vijeta etc. We should still be happy that we are
able to make others laugh. We just need to have the ability to laugh
at ourselves.
Harjinder Singh:
Violence is not the answer. Sikhs must strategise and plan their
moves so that they are represented in good light in Bollywood. Sikhs
must not use the media to communicate with the industry. We must
directly discuss the grave issue with the producers, directors and
actors to ensure good representation of Sikhs in Bollywood. We must
act in time and should know how to tackle the situation. It is
definitely difficult to convince an actor to sport a full beard in a
movie when we have so-called real Sikhs sporting trimmed beards.
Gurpreet Singh Rana:
We need more directors, producers, actors that have Sikh interests
closest to their hearts. We need to spend some of the money we are
spending on political infighting and building new Gurdwaras on
directors and actors who will have Sikhi closest to their hearts.
There are so many aspects of our history that could be made
into movies which will inspire audiences the world over. Anybody who
has seen the last 40 minutes of Saving Private Ryan will be inspired
by brotherhood, bravery and resourcefulness of display, but the
battle of Saragarhi (the anniversary for which is on Spetember the
12th), is living proof of this. There is a movie being made on
Saragarhi, the directors must aim to match what Steven Spielberg
delivered in the last 40 minutes of this film. OUR history and OUR
warriors deserve nothing less from OUR directors for OUR audiences
and OUR coming generations.
 The
reason I have capitalised the word 'OUR' is because we need an
audience that has Sikhi closest to their hearts. We must remember
that entertainment industry will always deliver what people want to
see, what people want to hear and what people want to believe. The
misrepresentation of Sikhs in Bollywood must continue to be opposed.
We must go out of our way to let them know that we are not happy
with what is going on.
But when some director or producer goes out of their way to
represent us in an appropriate manner (like Sonali Bose did in "Amu"),
then we must go out of our way to embrace their work. This means
going to the premiere of the movie when possible and buying the
ORIGINAL DVD (piracy hurts the producers too!).
We need to embrace the proper representation of Sikhi in
Bollywooed just as we embraced Ishmeet Singh. This is the least we
can do for OUR brother and OUR son.
Gurjot Keerat:
To
depict anyone we just look around and then copy so Sikhs are being
represented in Bollywood as they are visible to people on the
streets, i.e. in varying forms, some have trimmed beards; some have
cut their hair etc. So first the Saroop should be maintained
ourselves then we shall automatically see people representing Sikhs
properly.
Vaneet Singh:
Firstly, promote Sikhs like Ishmeet Singh who can make us proud
with their achievements and by representing correct identity of
Sikhism at high class venues. Secondly, I think Sikh authorities
(SGPC or DSGMC or both) should set up a scholarly committee (Media
Watch) comprising not only veteran scholars but also the young
professionals to keep a close watch on the activities of the
Bollywood where they misrepresent Sikhs/or Sikhism. A stern legal
action should be taken against such channels/producers/or groups.
Also, promote Sikhism more aggressively at least to our young
generation. If we will not know about our faith, how would we defend
it from misrepresentation? It is high time for us to act unitedly.
10 September 2008
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