By Emb Hashmi
Asian World caught up with the British actor, writer and all round funny man Kulvinder Ghir at a film premier where he was lending his creative stand up skills to a very worthy cause; which is called Express Punjab.
Kulvinder is of South Asian origin, he said “I have distant family in the Punjab, both parents were born in India and they moved to east Africa where I was born”. This is one of the reasons Kulvinder feels supporting a project that highlights staggering statistics of drug abuse in the Punjab is important to him, Furthmore his south Asian connection makes it relevant for him to act and do all he can to help reduce and even eradicate the dire situation.
Kulvinder is best known for his roles in Bend It like Beckham and the sketch show Goodness Gracious Me. He describes his relationship status as ‘strictly vegetarian’ and has Junior Kulvinder Ghir’s, who sound like they are following daddy’s footsteps.
Kulvinder has just finished a stint on stage and from there jumped straight into narrating and presenting the premier of Express Punjab “I’ve just finished working with the royal Shakespeare company, in an adaptation of ‘much do to with nothing’, and then came to Birmingham to present the World Premier of Express Punjab”. Kulvinder went on to say “when I first saw a part of documentary that Gaurav asked me to narrate I said yeah because we have a vision of India being the great land, we always looked at India as an innocent and young place where people are very much involved in the environment that they live in the farm land and in the simplest of life you never have the vision of the habitual drugs.
Kulvinder believes the staggering drug problem is linked to the growing economy in India and he feels whilst the country is moving forward the people are becoming more and more materialistic. He said “People want to escape there chores of life, when you escape you want to desire other things. Kulvinder went on to say “In the film you see farmers doing 14 hour shifts on the farm; they do this so they can afford to buy drugs. This is how bad the situation is getting”.
Kulvinder believes to resolve this type of situation people need to start engaging and discussing these controversial subjects “a lot of subjects are taboos within our cultures but if people are open to talk about them then it’s easier to move forward positively. We have to talk; it can’t be done in any form of aggressive attitude, or seen to be specifically related to one cultural”.
Kulvinder has a reflective attitude towards issues like drug abuse and said “I think we can build a vision of a paradise there is a lot of imperfections everyone within ourselves inside every culture I don’t personally know anyone in Punjab suffering from drug abuse, only through the documentary. We are so far away from what’s happening and the actual place where it is happening that when we see the very difficult reality it can be quite a shock”.
Kulvinder is so engrossed in the project that he said “I would like to be involved in a sequel, it will bring out taboos, I’m interested in the truth and the facts, if we can confront the truths and not shy away, we can make a real difference, our culture is very liberal”.
Kulvinder Ghirs Future Plans..
“I will start on a new film called Honey Comb Lodge, at the end of November and then star in another short film, so work wise things are interesting”
Kulvinder Ghir Christmas..
“I’m looking forward to Christmas and new years to relax spend time with the family”.
Kulvinder Ghir’s film release..
“I’ve done a film called Jadoo which will be releasing in March 2013; it’s about two brothers who set up rival restaurants on the golden mile in Leicester”.
Kulvinder Ghirs advice to up and coming Comedians..
“If you really feel passionate about doing something you believe in then follow it through, this is the oldest profession in the world storytelling; I kept everyone laughing in the house from a young age
I’ve had many moments where I’m being very serious and people are laughing and I’m saying what’s going on here”.
Kulvinder Ghir’s last words to the Asian World readers…
“My secret is you guys laughing, never ever lose your sense of humour”.
