The Speedy Singh of Comedy

Actor-comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi,who plays Uncle Sammy in Akshay Kumars Hollywood venture,plans to lower the volume on humour in Punjabi cinema as well.

Gurpreet Ghuggi is turned off by the volume. It’s deafening,he says,so is the sharp shrill,the loud pitch and over-the-top treatment of comedy in Punjabi cinema. “They’ve made jokers out of us,” he raps at the mockery that the art of humour is subjected to. What’s more disturbing is the overdose of it. “Stereotyping Punjabis as a loud and gregarious race is getting a notch too much,and I realised that I was being used in the same frame and capacity in every other film…just like a potato is used in every dish,” he says.

Ghuggi admits that some of the films he did were done out of obligation. But with his career taking an upward swing and Punjabi cinema witnessing a new wave of change through serious subjects,things are changing for the better. Not only will the actor be seen in his first Hollywood venture,Rob Lieberman’s Speedy Singhs,Ghuggi has also started working on comedy with serious intentions of re-inventing it for the Punjabi cinema.

“I am now working very systematically,taking only those subjects that are viable and creative. Also,I have made a promise to myself to bring up the level of comedy in Punjabi cinema. In that direction,I have already started work on a comedy film and plan to make two such films exclusively for Punjab every year,” says Ghuggi,inspired by the subtle-yet-witty comedy of great comedians in Hindi cinema such as

Mahmood,Vinay Pathak,Boman Irani and Kader Khan.

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“There is no comedy of errors happening here,no action comedy or performance-based comedy. I want to bring that on the screen,” he says,adding,“It’s a challenge,and it’s going to be difficult. But that’s what excites me.” The ambitious actor-comedian also wants his films to be part of the film libraries,to be used as reference points 50 years hence.

Ghuggi says that when AJ Virmani,the Canada-based producer of Speedy Singhs,took Akshay Kumar on board as producer,Kumar had only one condition: he’ll do the film only if Ghuggi is on board. “He had seen six of my films and when he called me,the next thing I did was to board a flight to Canada to play Uncle Sammy.”

With the film making its premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival recently,Ghuggi says he must have been the first turbaned sardar from Punjabi cinema to walk the red carpet. “Indians abroad are treated as underdogs. Speedy Singhs is about that aspect. Ultimately,it’s about the triumph of the spirit. I play Uncle Sammy,who owns the Speedy Singhs ice hockey team,” says a beaming Ghuggi. “The director was sure about what he wanted from me,and he told me to lower the volume,to act subtly,to work on a comedian’s body language,” Ghuggi adds. As Speedy Singhs is set to release on September 23,Ghuggi has his fingers crossed.

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The Speedy Singh of Comedy

Actor-comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi,who plays Uncle Sammy in Akshay Kumars Hollywood venture,plans to lower the volume on humour in Punjabi cinema as well.

Actor-comedian Gurpreet Ghuggi,who plays Uncle Sammy in Akshay Kumars Hollywood venture,plans to lower the volume on humour in Punjabi cinema as well.