Punjabi Antenna
Creativity unbound
Randeep Wadehra

Avtar Gill has worked in nearly 200 films in various languages

You remember him as Quadir Bhai in the classic serial Nukkad, as Basheer Khan in Ajnabi and as Don in the popular Zee TV serial Shatranj—in the latter he had successfully portrayed various nuances of the character. He is Avtar Gill, the Punjabi actor who, like that famous sauce, is different. Fluent in Marathi, Gujarati, Hindi, Telugu and other languages, he began his career with the famed Nanabhai Bhatt’s Gujarati flick Gajra Maru—a love legend akin to Heer Ranjha. He has done nearly 200 films in various languages, out of which 27 are with his director Mahesh Bhatt. He has enjoyed working in the Punjabi film Udeekan, apart from such Hindi ones like Noorie, Baghban, Ashiqui etc.

Although movies have enabled him to earn his dal-roti, he gets creative satisfaction by doing theatre (IPTA), with which he has been involved for the last 30 years. It pays zilch—initially actors used to get 10 bucks per show; later on they were ‘promoted’ to the 100 bucks slot. Immediate public response makes it more challenging and satisfying, he says.

He started 30 years ago with a small role in Dr Deshpande’s Shatranj ka Mohra, which is running continuously since then and he is still doing the same role in it. He is also acting in half a dozen other current productions. Gill is candid enough to admit that, unlike on television, he has not essayed any memorable role on the big screen. However, he is presently busy shooting for various Punjabi productions like Lakh Pardesi Hoiye, Babal Da Vehra, MLA Natha Singh and Sat Sri Akal. Among his forthcoming Hindi films are Ali Autowala, Aisi Diwaangi and Yash-Raj Films’ Banda Yeh Bindaas Hai.

Apart from reporting various types of crime, Punjabi news channels avoid smut and salaciousness in their bulletins. One witnessed this once again when they reported on Aroosa Alam’s visit to Chandigarh and Patiala for ‘inquiring about’ the health of an ailing old lady who happens to be the mother of her good friend Captain Amarinder Singh. The visit and its purported reason were dutifully broadcast. No uncomfortable questions were asked.

In these days of hi-tech communication tools like emails and cell-phones, if a high profile journalist deems it essential to hotfoot it all the way from Dubai merely to mouth a how-are-you, it becomes a media event. However, if you think that adjectives like ‘inflexible, staid and banal’ describe only our sarkari channels, you err gravely. Our Punjabi channels can beat DD any day. The killing of Benazir Bhutto next door had no effect on the program scheduling.